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f « 'WHO  (MnfltMairti  ' 

m^^MMilifilH^^^^^^H 

THEY  WHO  UNDERSTAND 


THEY    WHO 
UNDERSTAJNI) 


BY 


LILIAN   WHITING 


•'Be  constant,  0  happy  soul,  be  constant  and  of  good 
courage!  For  thou  wilt  be  protected,  enriched,  and  en- 
lightened by  the  greatest  good  ;  and  if  thou  dost  not  turn 
away,  but  perseverest  constantly,  know  that  thou  offerest  to 
God  the  most  acceptable  sacrifice."  —  Miguel  Molinos. 


NON-REFERT 


cqWVAD  '  Q3S 


BOSTON 

LITTLE,   BEOWN,   AND   COMPANY 

1919 


JbrarY 

EDUC. 
PSYCH.  ^ 
LIBRARY 


Copyright,  1919, 
By  Little,  Brown,  and  Company. 

All  rights  reserved 


NorbDooti  ^re20 

bet  up  and  electrotyped  by  J.  S.  Cushmg  Co.,  Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 

Presswork  by  S.  J.  Parkhill  &  Co.,  Boston,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


THE  belo\t:d  and  precious  memory 

OF 

THE  FLOWER   OF  AMERICAN  YOUTH 

WHOSE   HEROISM  EXALTS  AND  CONSECRATES 

THE   NEW  FREEDOM 

THAT  WILL  INVEST  A  REMADE   WORLD 

THUS  TRANSFIGURED  BY 

THEIR  HOLY  SACRIFICE 

— Lilian  Whitino 

'  •  The  gift  of  God  is  eternal  life  through 
Jeius  Christ,  our  Lord^^ 


15839 


CONTENTS 

Chapteb  Paqs 

I    The  Gates  of  New  Life     ....  1 

II    The  Unbroken  Continuity  of  Experience  47 

III  Evidential  Communication  and  Proof       .  74 

IV  The  Naturalness  of  the  Next  Phase  of 

Life 109 

V    How  to  Develop  Spiritual  Recognition  .  132 

VI    Daily    Life    Transformed    by    Spiritual 

Vision 153 

VII    "Here  Am  I,  Lord;   Send  Me".        .        .  175 


/f^.^,  //        .^. 


-  .    U    i 


"  There  shall  never  be  one  lost  good  I    What  was,  shall  live 
as  before ; 
The  evil  is  null,  is  naught,  is  silence  implying  sound ; 
What  was  good  shall  be  good,  with,  for  evil,  so  much  good 

more; 
On  the  earth  the  broken  arcs;  in  the  heaven  a  perfect 
round." 

—  Bbowning  in  '^Abt  Vogler." 


THEY  WHO  UNDERSTAND 


THE   GATES   OF   NEW  LIFE 

"...  a  Hand  like  this  hand 
Shall  throw  open  the  gates  of  new  life  to  thee ! 
See  the  Christ  stand!"  —  Browning  in  "Saul." 

A  GREAT  spiritual  awakening  is  over  the 
world.  "Where  Christ  brings  His  cross 
He  brings  His  presence,"  and  never  was 
the  intuitive  turning  of  all  humanity  to  God,  in 
the  face  of  sorrow,  more  evident  than  at  the 
present  time.  We  read  a  new  meaning  into  the 
wonderful  words,  "God  is  our  refuge  and  our 
strength ;  a  very  present  help  in  time  of  trouble." 
The  words  are  a  foundation  of  actual  life;  not 
merely  nor  even  mostly  consolation,  in  the 
ordinary  sense,  but  a  basis  of  the  deepest  reality 
on  which  to  stand.  We  endure  —  as  seeing  the 
invisible.  It  is  the  world  we  do  not  see  in  which 
we  live ;  it  is  the  forces  of  the  unseen  which  sus- 
1 


']'  they' Who  Understand 


tain  all  purpose.  Nor  is  it  only  in  hours  of  sad- 
ness and  bereavement  that  we  would  turn  to  God ; 
our  own  poet  of  the  spiritual  life,  the  gentle  and 
beloved  Longfellow,  has  given  true  expression  to 
an  universal  feeling  in  the  lines : 

"Ah,  when  the  infinite  burden  of  life  descendeth 
upon  us, 

Crushes  to  earth  our  hope,  and,  under  the  earth, 
in  the  graveyard. 

Then  it  is  good  to  pray  unto  God  I  for  His  sorrow- 
ing children 

Turns  He  ne'er  from  His  door,  but  He  heals  and 
helps  and  consoles  them. 

Yet  it  is  better  to  pray  when  all  things  are  pros- 
perous with  us. 

Pray  in  fortunate  days,  for  life's  most  beautiful 
Fortune 

Kneels  before  the  Eternal's  throne;  and  with 
hands  interfolded. 

Praises  thankful  and  moved  the  only  Giver  of 
blessings." 

A  very  present  help  in  time  of  trouble,  a  help 
equally  needed  in  time  of  joy,  —  in  every  supreme 


The  Gates  of  New  Life 


experience  of  life  the  soul  turns  intuitively  and 
instinctively  to  the  divine  aid.  The  nature  of 
this  aid  is  constantly  being  more  clearly  revealed 
to  us.  It  is  also  true  that  in  the  deepening 
spirituality  of  life  man  is  more  and  more  depend- 
ing on  this  aid.  Our  religious  faith  is  becoming 
to  us  the  most  absolutely  practical  reliance.  This 
deeper  assurance  springs  largely  from  our  increasing 
comprehension  of  the  nature  of  life ;  of  the  origin, 
the  development,  the  conditions  of  progress,  and 
the  final  destiny  of  the  spiritual  man  which  is 
the  individual  himself.  To  speak  of  the  destiny 
of  the  soul  as  if  it  were  something  apart  from  the 
man,  is  misleading.  Shall  we  not  realize  the 
simple  and  fundamental  truth  that  we  are,  here 
and  now,  spiritual  beings,  dwelling  in  a  spiritual 
world ;  that  it  is  the  spiritual  and  not  the  physical 
w^orld  to  which  we  belong;  that  we  are  tem- 
porarily clothed  with  a  physical  body  as  the  in- 
strument in  correspondence  with  the  physical 
environment  in  which  we  sojourn  for  a  season? 
Yet,  all  the  while,  even  during  this  sojourn,  we 
are  still  the  inhabitants  of  the  spiritual  world; 
a  world  of  "discrete  degrees",  as  Swedenborg 


They  Who  Understand 


points  out,  in  which  the  ethereal  is  the  next 
succeeding  environment  to  the  physical;  after 
which  we  pass  on  to  still  finer  and  finer  degrees 
of  environment,  even  from  glory  to  glory,  as  the 
apostle  phrases  it.  Now,  as  we  are  here  and  in 
the  immediate  present  an  inhabitant  of  both  the 
physical  and  ethereal  realms;  tethered  to  the 
former  by  the  physical  mechanism;  related  to 
the  latter  by  virtue  of  the  ethereal  body  in  which 
we  find  ourselves  when  we  withdraw  from  the 
physical  body  (as  one  would  withdraw  his  hand 
from  a  glove),  does  it  not  seem  luminously  clear 
that  those  of  our  beloved  who  have  thus  with- 
drawn by  the  process  we  name  death  are  still 
in  close  relations  to  us  ?  Never  was  there  a  time 
in  human  history  when  the  question  was  so  vital 
as  now,  when  thousands  of  homes  are  desolated 
by  the  vanishing  of  son,  brother,  or  husband  in 
the  tragic  and  terrible  conflict  which  has  been 
raging.  Unless  life  and  all  its  interests  and 
purposes  extend  beyond  the  merely  visible 
limits,  what  philosophy  or  consolation  could 
we  find? 
During  the  Boer  War  Archdeacon  Wilberforce 


The  Gates  of  New  Life 


said,  in  a  private  letter  to  a  friend  :  "  ^^^lat  do  you 
think  is  the  state  of  these  great  numbers  of  young 
Englishmen  suddenly  hurled  out  of  life?  Where 
are  they?  What  are  their  first  experiences?" 
When  the  present  Archbishop  of  Canterbury 
visited  the  United  States  in  1906,  preaching  elo- 
quently in  many  churches,  he  asked,  in  one  dis- 
course, "  The  life  beyond,  —  what  is  it  ?  What 
is  its  relation  to  the  life  about  us?"  The  Arch- 
bishop instanced  this  question  as  the  first  one 
that  would  rush  to  our  lips  if,  for  a  single  hour, 
we  had  full  access  to  Him  "who  is  the  Source 
and  Object  of  our  faith." 

If  that  question  were  vital  in  1906,  what  is  it  in 
this  year  of  1919,  when  it  voices  the  thought  that 
is  in  every  heart?  We  are  living  in  great 
moments.  Supreme  sacrifice  is  lifting  humanity 
to  the  heights  hitherto  undreamed.  But  through 
what  suffering,  what  sorrow  of  bereavement  do 
we  strive  to  behold  a  still  nobler  future!  Are 
those  homes  made  desolate;  those  hearts  which 
cry,  — 

"  But  oh  for  the  touch  of  a  vanished  hand. 
And  the  sound  of  a  voice  that  is  still !" 


6  They  Who  Understand 

are  they  to  be  left  groping  in  chaotic  darkness, 
hoping,  trusting,  yet  feeling  that  they  do  not 
really  know  in  what  state  are  these  gallant  young 
lives  that  have  passed,  or  in  what  relation  to  life 
still  here? 

Can  we  know  ?  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that 
it  is  absolutely  assured  that  we  may  penetrate 
to  a  considerable  extent  beyond  the  horizon  line 
that  divides  the  unseen  and  the  seen.  For  this 
horizon  line  is  not  a  fixed  wall ;  it  is  not  a  definite 
and  immovable  boundary ;  it  is  a  line  that  recedes 
as  constantly  before  the  increasing  development 
of  spiritual  perceptions  as  does  the  horizon  line 
of  distance  before  the  eye  of  the  traveler.  Scien- 
tific knowledge  of  the  nature  of  the  universe  and 
the  increasing  power  to  lay  hold  of  spiritual  truth 
unite  to  reveal  to  man  something  of  the  conditions 
in  which  those  who  withdraw  from  the  physical 
world  find  themselves.  So  we  may  question: 
After  all,  just  what  has  happened?  One  who 
was  on  earth  yesterday,  so  tenderly  beloved  and 
cherished,  is  to-day  in  the  next  succeeding  environ- 
ment of  our  eternal  and  immortal  life.  What 
does  this  transition  signify  to  him  and  to  us? 


The  Gates  of  Neiv  Life 


First  of  all,  we  may  be  confidently  assured  it  does 
not  signify  loss  and  loneliness  and  unbroken 
sorrow.  To  a  marvelous  degree  death  gives, 
rather  than  takes  away.  Spirit  to  spirit  ap- 
proaches more  closely  than  when  both  were 
limited  by  the  physical  mechanism.  One  is  now 
liberated  from  this,  and  therefore  more  fully  in 
command  of  his  powers.  When  one  comes  to 
think  of  it,  the  physical  body  is  a  separation  to 
a  degree.  How  universal  is  the  recognition  of 
love  far  deeper  than  can  be  expressed  in  human 
language.  How  universal  is  the  recognition  of 
both  feeling  and  thought  that  can  never  be  fully 
translated  into  ordinary  expression. 

_"  We  are  spirits,  clad  in  veils ; 
Man  by  man  was  never  seen ; 
All  our  deep  communion  fails 
To  remove  the  shadowy  screen.** 

In  this  stanza  and  others  in  the  same  poem, 
Christopher  Pearse  Cranch,  one  of  the  spirits 
"finely  touched  but  to  fine  issues",  —  one  of  that 
Cambridge  group  which  included  Lowell,  Story, 
and  that  spirit  of  loveliness  and  love  whom  we 


8  They  Who  Understand 

knew  on  earth  as  Charles  Eliot  Norton,  —  in  these 
lines  Mr.  Cranch  felicitously  embodied  a  pro- 
found truth.  In  this  part  of  life  we  are  veiled 
to  each  other.  We  do  not,  at  best,  penetrate 
very  far  beyond  the  "shadowy  screen."  The 
tragedy  of  love  is  its  possible  misinterpretations. 
"How  often,"  said  Mr.  Longfellow,  "we  call  a 
man  cold  when  he  is  only  sad."  As  a  matter  of 
fact  there  may  be  a  beautiful  interlude  in  this 
period  when  one  of  the  two  closely  conjoined  by 
ties  of  affection  is  in  the  ethereal  and  one  still  in 
the  physical  world.  There  are  thus  three  phases 
of  companionship  which  are  fairly  clear  to  us: 
One  when  both  are  here  in  this  part  of  life ;  the 
second  when  one  is  in  the  ethereal  and  the  other 
here;  while  the  third,  when  both  are  again  to- 
gether in  the  same  environment  in  the  next  succes- 
sive stage  of  life,  is  becoming  recognizable  to  us. 
We  did  not  regard  it  as  a  cause  for  sorrow  when, 
in  the  easy  and  happy  days  that  preceded  that 
fatal  August  of  1914,  one  held  most  dear  left 
us  for  a  time  for  a  journey  to  Europe  or  to  the 
Far  East.  The  visible  presence  had  temporarily 
vanished,  but  what  added  richness  of  life  was 


The  Gates  of  Neiv  Life  9 

shared  I  The  interest  and  charm  of  the  new 
experiences  of  the  traveler  brought  their  added 
interest  and  charm  to  the  life  of  the  one  who 
remained  at  home.  The  analogy  is  unerring. 
The  interlude  of  companionship  between  one  in 
the  unseen  and  one  here  may  be,  —  indeed,  it 
should  be,  —  a  period  of  peculiar  uplifting  and 
holy  joy.  One  reason  (perhaps  the  only  reason) 
why  it  is  not,  is  that  the  one  left  on  earth  is  so 
plunged  into  grief,  so  submerged  in  sorrow,  that 
the  continual  messages  of  thought  and  love 
cannot  pass  through  the  impenetrable  gloom. 
Washington  Irving  said  that  sorrow  for  the  dead 
was  the  only  sorrow  that  we  cherished;  all 
other  wounds  we  sought  to  heal,  but  this  sorrow 
we  regarded  as  one  that  we  should  not  en- 
deavor to  lessen.  The  words  reveal  to  how 
signal  a  degree  we  have  advanced  between  the 
time  of  Mr.  Irving  and  our  own.  Even  when 
grief  is  unassuaged,  the  one  in  sorrow  now  makes 
brave  efforts  to  rise  above  it  and  be  cheerful  for 
the  sake  of  others.  During  the  past  quarter 
of  a  century  the  change  of  attitude  toward 
death  has  been  very  apparent. 


10  They  Who  Understand 

Perhaps  no  one  who  was  present  at  the  last 
rites  for  Phillips  Brooks  (January  26,  1893)  can 
ever  fail  to  remember  that  the  entire  spirit  of  the 
service  was  that  of  a  sacred  festival.  There  was 
such  spontaneous  recognition  of  the  immortal 
qualities  of  the  man  that  there  was  no  room  for 
mourning.  It  was  felt  by  all  that  there  was  little 
of  his  life  that  could  die.  Those  who  have  been 
privileged  to  hold  close  companionship  with  the 
noble  and  the  lofty  cannot  regard  their  transition 
from  this  phase  of  life  as  any  finality  of  separation. 
In  all  ages  and  in  all  nations  the  great  of  soul 
have  transcended  death.  The  Reverend  Doctor 
Ernest  Stires,  rector  of  St.  Thomas's  in  New 
York,  thus  speaks  in  a  recent  discourse  of  this 
transition : 

"How  very  stupid  we  are  about  death  I  The 
day  that  brings  God's  summons  is  our  real 
Commencement  Day.  All  our  earthly  life  is  an 
education,  a  preparation,  for  a  larger  career. 
The  best  that  we  have  done  here  is  valuable  not 
merely  for  its  contribution  to  earthly  life,  but 
for  the  training  for  the  higher  service." 

Doctor  Stires  added: 


The  Gates  of  New  Life  11 

"  Hold  fast  to  your  comforting  idea  of  God ; 
keep  your  inspiring  vision  of  life's  meaning ;  have 
beautiful  dreams  of  the  joy  of  dear  ones  in  the 
Life  Eternal ;  and  remember  that  all  our  ideas, 
our  visions,  our  dreams  are  true  only  as  they  may 
be  beautiful  and  strengthening;  and  that  at 
the  point  of  their  fairest  beauty  they  are  yet  short 
of  the  glorious  facts,  for  the  realities  of  God 
transcend  man's  highest  hopes." 

This  interlude  is  one  that  has  come  into 
thousands  of  homes  from  which  the  brave  and 
gallant  youth  of  our  country  have  gone  forth 
to  return  no  more.  "This  will  be  known  as  the 
age  *when  knighthood  was  in  flower',"  Doctor 
Stires  has  also  said, — the  age  in  which  the 
spirit  of  youth  responded  to  the  voice  and  the 
vision.  "Life  runs  large"  in  the  inspiration  of  a 
Cause  when  to  the  young  man  there  comes  that 
"voice  without  reply",  and  he  hears, — 

"  'Tis  man's  perdition  to  be  safe 

When  for  the  truth  he  ought  to  die. " 

It  is  a  spiritual  awakening  to  this  young  knight- 
hood. 


12  They  Who  Understand 

"I  think  I  should  go  mad  if  I  did  not  cherish 
faith  in  the  justice  of  things,  and  a  confident 
belief  that  death  cannot  end  great  friendships," 
wrote  Robert  Sterling,  who  won  the  Newdigate 
prize  at  Oxford  for  his  poem,  "The  Burial  of 
Socrates",  and  who  was  killed  at  the  front  on  St. 
George's  Day  of  1915.  This  boy-poet,  whose 
sojourn  on  earth  had  been  less  than  twenty-two 
years,  and  Alan  Seeger,  who  knew  that  he  had 
"a  rendezvous  with  death",  and  who  went  for- 
ward with  joyful  courage,  are  two,  typical  of 
multitudes.  These  young  men  who  enter  on 
the  next  phase  of  life  are  aglow  with  noblest 
enthusiasms;  they  are  spiritually  alive;  they 
are  in  readiness  to  lay  hold  on  progress  as  is  the 
youth  who  enters  the  university  filled  with 
enthusiasm  for  learning  rather  than  with  indiffer- 
ence to  his  privileges.  "He  in  whom  the  divine 
light  has  not  awakened  is  virtually  asleep  in  the 
spirit,  and  therefore  cannot  act  upon  spiritual 
things  any  more  than  a  man  asleep  can  act  upon 
material  things,"  says  an  Oriental  writer.  The 
conditions  in  which  these  young  men  pass  into 
the  unseen  render  them  spiritually  awake  and 


The  Gates  of  New  Life  13 

alert.  They  compassed  more  than  the  ordinary 
spiritual  progress  of  a  lifetime  within  the  brief 
period  of  their  entrance  into  a  conflict  which 
aroused  all  holy  enthusiasm.  This  fact,  alone,  is 
one  of  infinite  significance,  ^^^lat  new  meaning 
has  their  transition?  One  aspect  of  this  signifi- 
cance is  that  study  and  research  into  spiritual 
truth  has  quite  established  the  actual  fact  that 
the  higher  spirituality  achieved  during  the 
physical  tenure  of  life  renders  the  spiritual  man 
far  more  free  and  buoyant  on  his  entrance  into 
the  ethereal  realm.  The  analogy  may  be  found 
in  that  of  one  entering  on  this  life  with  unimpeded 
vision  rather  than  blindness. 

After  all,  just  what  has  happened  ?  One  who, 
so  tenderly  beloved  and  cherished,  was  here 
yesterday,  sharer  of  our  familiar  conditions,  is 
to-day  in  the  conditions  just  succeeding  our 
own  ;  he  has  withdrawn  from  these.  Yesterday 
he  was  in  the  physical  realm.  To-day  he  is  in 
the  ethereal  realm.  What  does  this  transition 
signify  to  us,  or  to  him? 

The  tragedy  of  the  War  has  brought  home  to 
us  these  questions  in  a  way  that  becomes  a  vital 


14  They  Who  Understand 

issue.  Where  are  they,  —  the  gallant  young 
soldiers  who  offered  their  earthly  lives  with 
abounding  heroism  for  the  great  cause  of  human 
freedom?  In  The  Nation,  under  date  of  July 
18,  1918,  occurs  this  paragraph : 

"  Of  the  spiritual  questions  raised  anew  by  the 
Great  War,  none  is  attracting  more  attention 
than  that  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  The 
enormous  loss  of  life  on  the  battlefield,  the  un- 
fulfilled character  of  the  lives  thus  abruptly 
ended,  the  hunger  of  those  left  behind  for  reunion 
with  ^the  loved  and  lost'  combine  to  quicken 
and  deepen  the  perennial  interest  in  the  problem 
of  survival  after  death.  Of  the  various  phases 
of  this  interest  in  immortality,  none  is  more 
striking  than  the  renewal  of  discussion  of 
spiritualism,  psychical  research,  and  kindred 
matters." 

The  question  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul  I 
To  those  whose  faith  in  immortality  is  as  absolute 
as  their  existence,  the  idea  of  its  being  a  "ques- 
tion", a  debatable  problem,  is  almost  untenable. 
Yet  that  to  a  large  proportion  of  humanity  it 
still  is  such  must  be  recognized.    The  "will  to 


The  Gates  of  New  Life  15 

believe"  does  not  alone  create  faith.  That 
seems  to  be  a  conviction  with  or  without  which 
one  is  born.  One  has  faith  as  he  has  his  very 
existence  ;  or,  —  he  has  not.  Nor  is  it  a  question 
of  ethics  or  morals.  It  is,  apparently,  a  question 
of  the  degree  of  one's  spiritual  development,  of 
the  opening  of  the  spiritual  nature.  IMultitudes 
of  people,  of  flawless  integrity  and  beneficent 
life,  do  not  yet  find  themselves  with  this  absolute 
and  unquestioning  conviction.  And  as  Tennyson 
so  justly  says,  — 

"  There  lives  more  faith  in  honest  doubt, 
Believe  me,  than  in  half  the  creeds." 

There  is  no  virtue  in  professing  a  belief,  a  con- 
viction, that  one  does  not  feel.  Quite  the  con- 
trary. Let  us  be  honest  with  ourselves.  Let  us 
search,  —  not  for  argument  to  sustain  any  favorite 
or  preconceived  theory,  but  for  truth  alone.  Yet 
as  Frederic  W.  H.  Myers  has  said,  there  is,  doubt- 
less, in  each  of  us  "an  abiding  psychical  entity 
far  more  extensive  than  one  knows ;  an  individu- 
ality which  can  never  express  itself  completely 
through  any  corporeal  manifestation."    Few  are 


16  They  Who  Understand 

the  persons  who  are  mentally  satisfied  to  deny  the 
possibility  of  immortality,  even  though  they 
declare  that  they  perceive  no  evidence  for  it. 
Very  few  persons  find  themselves  resting  con- 
tentedly with  a  negative  conviction.  They 
"hope"  it  is  true,  even  while,  in  the  same  breath, 
they  may  declare  that  they  see  no  reason  to 
justify  this  hope.  In  a  way  there  seem  to  be 
three  classes  of  attitude;  that  which  believes 
unquestioningly  from  intuitive  recognition  sup- 
ported by  religious  faith;  that  which  has  come 
to  be  convinced  by  evidence,  —  the  evidence  of 
survival  by  means  of  communications  and 
messages  from  beyond ;  and  that  which  is  quite 
ready  to  be  convinced,  if  the  evidence  seems  to 
them  suflSciently  undeniable. 

To  no  one  of  these  attitudes  can  any  objection 
be  made.     For  they  are  all  honest  and  sincere. 

For  more  or  less  varying  periods  the  matter  is 
not,  to  many,  the  most  vital  issue  of  life. 
All  at  once  through  a  great  bereavement  it 
becomes  such.  The  heroic  young  son,  brother, 
or  husband  has  suddenly  met  death  on  the  battle- 
field.   Or,   in   some   other   manner,    some   one 


The  Gates  of  New  Life  17 

dearly  beloved  has  vanished  into  the  unseen. 
Then  love  is  on  the  alert  to  penetrate  the  mystery. 
First  of  all  let  us  realize  that  nothing  evil  has 
happened.  This  change  whose  process  we  call 
death  is  simply  that  the  spiritual  man,  the  real 
being,  one's  self,  so  to  speak,  withdraws  from  the 
outer  physical  tenement,  just  as  the  hand  is 
withdrawn  from  a  glove.  The  spiritual  being 
which  is  the  man  himself  is  temporarily  clothed 
with  a  physical  body  for  his  use  while  he  is  in  the 
physical  world.  It  is  this  which  relates  him  to 
the  physical  world ;  which  enables  him  to  come 
into  touch  with  it.  It  is  the  instrument,  the 
mechanism,  that  provides  for  the  spiritual  being 
his  means  of  acting  on  and  with  physical  forces, 
just  as  the  piano,  the  violin,  the  pen,  the  type- 
writer,  enable  the  musician  to  audibly  embody  his 
music,  the  writer  to  make  visible  expression  of 
his  thought.  The  physical  body  is  that  wonderful 
and  perfectly  adapted  mechanism,  or  instrument, 
by  which  alone  the  spiritual  being  can  come  into 
relations  with,  and  by  means  of  which  he  may 
effectively  accomplish  achievements  in  the  physi- 
cal world.    It  is  no  more  the  man  hknself  than 


18  They  Who  Understand 

the  glove  is  the  hand ;  or  than  the  piano  is  the 
musician,  or  the  pen  the  writer.  Shall  we  not 
clearly  recognize  this  truth,  first  of  all?  The 
man  has  withdrawn  from  his  physical  sheath. 
At  best,  it  was  only  designed  for  temporary  use. 
Somewhere  within  a  hundred  years,  as  a  usual 
thing,  we  all  withdraw  from  these  sheaths. 
And  then  ? 

Then  we  enter  on  the  life  more  abundant. 
But  just  what  does  that  inspiring  phrase  signify  ? 
Is  it  merely  a  vague  term  whose  meaning  cannot 
be  clearly  grasped  ?  Not  so.  The  physical  body, 
while  its  use  is  to  permit  the  man  to  relate  his 
energies  to  a  range  of  objective  achievements, 
yet  limits  his  expression.  He  has  far  greater 
capabilities  than  can  thus  be  expressed,  as  a  great 
musician  cannot  adequately  express  his  music 
by  a  piano  limited  to  four  octaves.  The  spiritual 
man  then,  the  real  individual,  has  far  more  to 
express  than  the  limited  mechanism  of  the  physi- 
cal body  allows  him  to  transmit  through  its 
means ;  therefore,  when  he  has  withdrawn  from 
it  he  experiences  a  sense  of  freedom,  of  an  exhilara- 
tion of  energy,  of  a  power  undreamed  of  before. 


The  Cafes  of  New  Life  19 

The  first  sensation,  as  a  rule,  is  that  of  a  fairly 
rapturous  and  ecstatic  deUght.  We  know  this 
by  the  vast  accumulation  of  testimony  that 
cannot  be  either  doubted  or  denied.  From  the 
assurance  of  Jesus,  the  Christ,  to  the  present 
time,  its  volume  has  been  increasing.  The 
ethereal  body  (which  is  now  free  from  the  limi- 
tations of  the  outer  physical  body)  is  in  cor- 
respondence w4th  the  ethereal  environment, 
the  realm  just  succeeding  that  in  which  we 
now  live. 

What  is  the  nature  of  this  environment?  Is 
it  something  so  strange,  so  incomprehensible  to 
our  present  conceptions,  that  we  can  form  no  idea 
at  all  of  it?  Not  so.  Jt  is  perfectly  natural. 
It  is  in  a  perfect  continuity  of  relation  to  our 
present  environment.  It  has  been  called  a  replica 
of  the  physical  world.  But,  instead,  the  physical 
world  is  a  lesser  and  feebler  replica  of  the  ethe- 
real. Because  the  latter  is  the  more  real.  The 
ethereal  is  the  realm  of  causes.  The  physical 
is  the  realm  of  effects.  As  life  progresses  it 
grows  more  real  and  more  significant,  as  the  life 
of  the  man  or  woman  is  more  real  and  significant 


20  They  Who  Understand 

than  the  life  of  the  infant.  But,  holding  the 
analogy  still  further,  as  the  infant  merges  into 
childhood,  youth,  maturity,  age,  without  any 
startling  change  from  day  to  day,  progressing 
by  a  system  of  perfect  and  unbroken  continuity, 
so,  in  this  absolutely  unbroken  continuity,  does 
the  life  in  the  physical  world  merge  into  that 
of  the  ethereal  world.  There  is  no  definite  line 
of  demarcation.  It  is  the  unbroken  continuity  of 
evolutionary  progression.  The  man  who  shared 
our  life  yesterday  in  these  familiar  surroundings 
shares  our  life  to-day  in  his  new  environment. 
He,  in  his  essential  self,  is  unchanged.  But  he 
has  entered  on  a  larger  round  of  possibilities  and 
of  opportunities  for  his  expanding  powers.  His 
first  sensation  is  that  of  an  incommunicable 
joy.  This  ecstatic  sense  of  freedom ;  this  intense 
interest  of  a  new  and  boundless  range  of  life,  — 
not  separated  from  the  order  of  life  he  has  just 
left,  but  including  that  and  beckoning  on  to  that 
which  is  infinitely  greater,  — how  beautiful  and 
how  joyous  it  is  !  With  one  possible  exception  ? 
Alas,  it  is  almost  always  an  exception,  and  that 
is  the  grief  of  those  dear  to  him  who  do  not  com- 


The  Gates  of  New  Life  21 

prebend  the  blessedness  and  tbe  beauty  of  the 
transition. 

Now  when  we  come  to  realize  its  true  nature, 
should  not  this  interlude  be  a  joyful  one  on  both 
sides?  May  we  not  think  of  our  dear  human 
relations  as  falling  into  three  distinctive  phases; 
the  one  when  both  are  in  the  physical  world ; 
the  second  when  one  is  in  the  physical,  one  in  the 
ethereal ;  the  third  when  both  are  in  the  ethereal  ? 
The  first  one  of  these  phases  has  had  its  sweet- 
ness and  its  joy  for  us ;  but  the  second,  too,  has 
its  joy  and  its  sweetness.  "Lift  up  your  hearts." 
Nothing  evil  has  happened.  The  companionship 
of  spirit  to  spirit  is  unbroken.  Then,  the  third 
phase,  that  of  the  reunion  of  both  in  the  ethereal 
world,  awaits.  It  is  an  event  absolutely  assured. 
There  is  no  doubt  about  it.  It  is,  at  most,  only 
a  question  of  time.  Now,  why  not  accept  the 
happiness,  yes,  even  the  happiness  of  this  inter- 
lude? It  offers  its  own  beauty  and  interest.  It 
offers  great  opportunities  for  both  intellectual 
and  spiritual  experience  and  expansion.  It  has 
its  own  peculiar  privileges  and  special  joys  that 
have  not  presented  themselves  before  and  will 


22  They  Who  Understand 

not  present  themselves  in  just  this  manner  again. 
Shall  we  not  make  it  a  rich  and  beautiful  period 
rather  than  one  of  loss  and  gloom  and  sorrow? 
Because  in  that  way  we  may  contribute  so  much 
to  the  happiness  of  those  who  are  so  dear  and  who 
have  passed  into  the  unseen. 

It  is  not  strange  that  this  period  has  been  made 
one  of  mourning  and  sadness  to  those  who  have 
not  come  to  comprehend  more  truly  the  real  nature 
of  that  change  we  call  death.  It  has  been  veiled 
in  mystery  because  we  have  not  fully  understood 
the  real  teaching  of  Jesus.  To  some  extent  both 
He  and  the  apostles  taught  in  parables  and  in 
symbolic  language,  and  it  is  only  in  the  larger 
illumination  of  modern  interpretation  that  we 
have  quite  realized  the  simple  and  sincere  mean- 
ing of  the  gospels.  "With  what  body  do  they 
come?"  asks  Saint  Paul  in  his  epistle  to  the 
Corinthians.  The  context  compares  the  resurrec- 
tion of  the  ethereal  body  with  the  physical 
body,  —  the  withdrawal  of  the  ethereal  from  the 
physical  —  with  the  sowing  of  grain  which  is 
quickened  and  springs  up  from  the  ground. 
"So,  also,"  says  Saint  Paul,  "is  the  resurrection 


The  Gates  of  New  Life  28 

of  the  dead."  Our  error  in  the  past  has  been 
that  we  failed  to  realize  that  his  "resurrection" 
is  but  another  name  for  the  very  process  that  we 
call  death.  It  is  the  rising  of  the  spiritual  man 
from  the  physical  encasement  which  he  discards, 
as  one  discards  outw^orn  garments.  He  who 
dies  thus  rises  in  newness  of  life.  That  is  what 
dying  means.  Now  to  rise  in  newness  of  life  is 
very  beautiful.  It  is  also  very  joyful.  And  the 
beauty  and  the  joy  are  for  us  whose  love  follows 
the  arisen,  so  tenderly  and  unfailingly,  as  well 
as  for  them.  Indeed,  their  possibilities  of  joy 
are  very  greatly  diminished  if  not  lost  by  our 
grief  and  sorrow.  Now^  it  is  the  one  greatest  com- 
fort to  feel  that  we  may  still  do  something  for 
those  dearer  than  our  own  life;  and  we  can  do 
this;  we  can  lift  up  our  hearts  and  recognize 
the  nature  of  the  change  that  has  come  to  them 
and  share  with  them  the  joy  of  it.  Archdeacon 
Wilberforce  of  Westminster  in  an  Easter  sermon 
said :  "  Resurrection  means  continuity  of  in- 
dividuality, utter  abolition  of  death  as  a  con- 
crete reality,  the  exposure  of  death  as  a  sham  and 
a  delusion."    These  are  strong  words  from  one 


24  They  Who  Understand 

of  the  most  devout  of  churchmen;  and  in  addi- 
tion the  Archdeacon  suggests : 

"  It  is  mere  self-deception,  of  course,  to  pretend 
that  death  is  a  delusion  on  the  physical  plane ;  it 
is  not ;  .  .  .  but,  from  within,  the  man,  —  the 
real  man,  rises  into  the  new  conditions.  .  .  .  The 
moment  of  death  is  the  moment  of  resurrection, 
the  essential  identity  the  same.  And  remember, 
death  is  the  re-uniter  of  loving  presences." 

The  young  hero  who,  in  all  his  holy  enthusiasm, 
flung  himself  into  devotion  to  the  sublime  ideal 
for  which  our  soldiers  were  fighting,  and  who, 
yesterday  at  the  front,  was  separated  from  those 
who  held  him  nearest,  but  who,  to-day,  has 
passed  into  the  unseen  realm,  is  no  longer 
separated.  Death  gives  us  our  beloved.  It  is 
the  contingencies  of  this  part  of  life  that  take 
them  from  us. 

Following  the  wonderful  illumination  of  the 
teachings  of  Saint  Paul  we  read :  "  It  is  sown  a 
natural  body ;  it  is  raised  a  spiritual  body.  There 
is  a  natural  body  and  there  is  a  spiritual  body." 
The  two  are  coincident ;  the  spiritual  body  (which 
is  the  real,  the  substantial  body)  is  clothed  by  the 


'The  Gaies  of  New  Lift  25 

natural  for  a  limited  period  of  time.  One  need 
not  look  beyond  the  familiar  passages  of  the 
gospels  to  find  authority  and  confirmation  for  the 
conviction  of  the  present  reality  of  the  spiritual 
body  (the  "substantial"  body,  as  Saint  Paul 
well  calls  it),  for  it  persists;  while  its  outer 
physical  case,  being  unsubstantial,  decays  and 
disappears  on  the  withdrawal  of  the  substantial 
one.  To  clearly  recognize  this  initial  fact  is  to 
gain  the  conditions  to  grasp  the  larger  truth  in 
direct  sequence,  —  that,  with  the  existence  of 
the  friend  in  his  spiritual  body  (of  which  the 
physical  form  we  knew  was  a  replica),  compan- 
ionship and  communion,  even  definite  commu- 
nication, are  natural  and  even  inevitable. 

If  I  seem  to  dwell  unduly  upon  this  matter  of 
the  spiritual  body  it  is  because  psychical  research 
has  so  largely  used  the  term  "discarnate"  in 
referring  to  those  who  have  withdrawn  from  the 
life  on  earth.  The  term  "discarnate  spirit" 
may  be  scientific  (by  custom)  but  it  is  not 
spiritual  truth.  There  is  no  such  thing  in  the 
infinite  universe  as  a  "discarnate"  spirit.  Every 
spirit  is  clothed  in  a  body.     As  life  goes  on  and 


26  They  Who  Understand 

on,  these  bodies  become  finer  and  more  subtle. 
But  for  the  moment  we  are  not  considering  the 
momentous  possibihties  of  future  eternities,  but 
rather  the  immediate  present  after  the  with- 
drawal. For  the  sake  of  clearness  may  I  just  say 
that  in  a  vast  completeness  of  contemplation, 
the  body  that  first  succeeds  the  physical  is 
termed  the  ethereal;  and  that  successively  be- 
tween the  conditions  of  the  ethereal  and  the 
spiritual  bodies  there  are  differences  of  degree; 
but  not  to  make  our  present  survey  encumbered 
with  detail,  one  may  simply  refer  to  this  the  real 
body  as  the  spiritual,  which  it  is,  indeed,  in  a 
potential  degree. 

The  assumption  that  the  natural  grief  and  sor- 
row for  the  death  of  those  tenderly  cherished  is  a 
matter  to  be  approached  without  comprehension 
and  sympathy  is  not  tenable.  Into  all  the  sweet 
relations  of  our  human  life  this  sorrow  falls.  It 
is  our  universal  experience.  But  just  because 
it  is  universal,  a  grief  in  common  to  us  all,  we 
may  approach  it  with  mutual  inquiry. 

A  little  understanding  of  the  conditions  in  which 
we  now  live  throws  great  light  upon  the  problem 


The  Gates  of  New  Life  27 

of  the  interrelations  of  life  in  the  physical  and 
the  ethereal  realms.  We  are,  here  and  now, 
spiritual  beings  inhabiting  a  spiritual  world.  We 
are  only  partially  physical  beings  inhabiting  a 
physical  world.  Our  sojourn  in  this  physical 
realm  is  limited.  Our  physical  body  is  only  a 
temporary  convenience. 

When  Sir  Oliver  Lodge  made  clear  to  science 
the  existence  of  the  ether  of  space  he  thus  pro- 
vided a  very  definite  condition  for  the  environ- 
ment of  those  who  have  passed  through  death. 
Sir  Oliver's  work  was  purely  scientific;  but  one 
could  hardly  grasp  the  scientific  truth  without 
discerning  its  spiritual  prototype.  The  great 
scientist  finds  that  the  ether  is  the  most  solid, 
the  most  substantial  thing  in  the  known  uni- 
verse, —  "  Perhaps  the  only  substantial  thing  in 
the  material  universe,"  he  says.  Sir  Oliver  adds 
that,  in  comparison  with  the  ether,  "the  densest 
matter,  such  as  lead,  or  gold,  is  a  filmy,  gossamer 
structure;  like  a  comet's  tail,  or  a  milky  way, 
or  like  a  salt  in  a  very  dilute  solution."  Now 
this  substantial,  etheric  world  is  absolutely  inter- 
penetrated with  our  physical  world.     It  forms 


28  They  Who  Understand 

conditions  coexistent.  With  this  ethereal  en- 
vironment the  ethereal  (or  spiritual)  body  is  in 
the  same  correspondence  that  the  physical  body 
is  with  the  physical  environment.  So  this  truth 
provides  a  definite  answer  to  our  first  question : 
Where  are  those  who  were  here  yesterday  and 
have  vanished  to-day  ?  Where  are  they  ?  Under 
what  conditions  are  they  living? 

Think  of  the  difference  it  is  to  us  to  simply 
believe  in  immortality,  but  with  no  definite  idea 
as  to  what  form  immortality  assumes;  to  try 
to  conceive  a  "discarnate"  spirit;  an  "essence"; 
a  "persistence  of  consciousness";  or  to  realize 
that  the  man  who  has  withdrawn  from  his 
physical  body  is  as  definitely  clothed  in  his  ethereal 
body  and  is  living  as  definitely  (and  as  naturally) 
in  the  ethereal  environment  as  we  are  in  the 
physical  environment.  What  a  tremendous 
difference  that  makes  to  us  at  once.  There  is 
something  to  take  hold  of,  to  understand.  We 
not  only  believe ;  we  absolutely  realize  something 
of  the  nature  of  the  life  in  which  he  is  now  dwell- 
ing. Sir  Oliver  Lodge  did  not  himself,  in  his 
wonderful  little  book  entitled   "The  Ether  Of 


The  Gates  of  Xew  Life  29 

Space",  present  its  spiritual  prototype.  It  is  the 
purely  scientific  work  of  a  great  scientist.  That 
is  what  makes  it  so  tenable  as  a  basis  from  which 
to  still  farther  extend  its  significance.  For  if 
this  ethereal  world  is  so  substantial  one  recog- 
nizes that  it  provides  and  explains  the  environ- 
ment for  the  next  succeeding  phase  of  life. 

That  communication  exists  between  those  in 
the  seen  and  those  in  the  unseen  worlds  is  a  truth 
as  definitely  and  unmistakably  proven  as  is  the 
reality  of  messages  by  the  Marconi  system.  This 
communication  has  always  existed.  The  Bible 
is  full  of  instances  and  illustrations.  In  modern 
times  the  authentic  experiences  of  Swedenborg 
alone  would  tend  to  convince  the  reader.  And  the 
vast  accumulation  of  evidence  is  so  great  that 
no  argument  from  details  need  be  entered  upon 
here.  Any  reader  who  is  not  convinced  of  this 
has  only  to  make  his  own  researches  and  to  form 
his  own  convictions.  The  aim  in  these  pages  is, 
while  assuming  the  truth  of  communication,  to 
endeavor  to  trace  out  the  conditions  that  render 
it  possible  and  that  also  establish  its  probability, 
even  its  certainty.     These  conditions  are  two- 


30  Thetj  Who  Understand 

j.  fold,  —  those  of  the  very  nature  of  man  himself 
and  of  the  interpenetration  of  the  two  successive 
environments,  the  physical  and  the  ethereal. 
We  hold  perfectly  clear  and  definite  relations 
with  our  friends  in  the  unseen,  just  as  we  do  with 
those  in  the  visible  world.  The  only  difference 
is  that  the  relations  with  the  unseen  are  more 
intimate,  more  unfailing,  more  truly  a  companion- 
ship of  spirit.  The  physical  body  that  died  was 
a  mechanism  that  transmitted  this  companion- 
ship of  spirit  but  transmitted  it  imperfectly. 
The  friend  who  is  in  the  ethereal,  with  that  more 
abounding  life,  is  in  a  more  direct  relation  to 
us  here  than  are  our  fellow  beings  on  earth. 

A  vast  body  of  communications,  ranging  practi- 
cally over  all  time,  have  affirmed  the  existence  of 
a  realm  not  unlike  our  own ;  of  continents,  seas, 
mountains,  lakes,  forests,  rivers;  of  cities  and 
of  country;  of  churches,  temples,  schools;  of 
music,  of  lectures,  of  art,  of  the  worship  of  God. 
But  how,  we  have  questioned,  can  this  be? 
Now,  if  the  ether  of  space  has  the  solidity  and 
the  reality  that  has  been  scientifically  demon- 
strated by  Sir  Oliver  Lodge,  we  understand  how 


The  Gates  of  New  Life  31 

it  can  be.  And  if  the  ethereal  world  is  thus  inter- 
penetrated with  our  physical  world  (as  vibrations 
prove),  we  realize  how  this  world  is  with  us  in 
our  very  midst.  Further,  and  this,  too,  is  a 
scientific  fact,  the  ether  is  so  elastic  that  it 
transmits  the  slightest  impression  made  upon  it, 
and  thus  thought,  which  is  the  most  potent  force 
in  the  universe,  is  instantly  transmitted  from 
spirit  to  spirit;  from  one  who  is  still  physically 
embodied  to  one  in  the  ethereal  embodiment. 
Thought  is  a  power  of  such  invincible  potency 
that  the  kingdoms  of  the  earth  are  helpless 
before  it.  Love  is  a  force  of  such  divine  potency 
that  it  takes  the  wings  of  the  morning  and  darts, 
straight  as  a  beam  of  light,  to  him  to  whom  it  is 
sent.  Thought  and  love,  they  are  the  irresistible 
powers  of  life. 

The  rationale  of  the  change  we  call  death  reveals 
it  as  no  evil,  no  calamity,  but  a  step  onward  in 
our  great  evolutionary  progress.  In  our  more 
spiritualized  religious  faith  we  shall  come  to 
recognize  death  as  a  sacred  festival  rather  than 
as  an  occasion  for  gloom  or  sadness.  Jesus  came 
to  bring  life  and  immortality  to  light ;  to  demon- 


32  They  Who  Understand 

strate  to  us  that  spiritual  life  is  eternal  in  its 
nature.  We  simply  discard  successive  environ- 
ments as  we  go  on  from  glory  to  glory.  Now 
and  here,  man,  as  a  spiritual  being,  has  the 
spiritual  organs  of  sight,  hearing,  and,  indeed, 
entire  perception  of  presences  that  his  physical 
eye  cannot  see.  And  why?  It  is  very  simple. 
It  is  a  mere  technical  matter. 

In  the  infinite  octaves  of  vibration,  the  physical 
organs  of  the  eye  and  ear  only  register  a  small 
proportion.  Ultra-violet  light,  for  instance 
(which,  in  technical  language,  only  begins  with 
the  fifty-first  octave,  and  which  is  demonstrated 
in  the  laboratory),  is  in  a  vibration  beyond  that 
which  the  eye  can  register.  We  recognize  here 
but  the  smallest  proportion  of  the  etheric  vibra- 
tions. Now  the  ethereal  body  is  in  this  state 
of  high  vibration  and  is  thus  beyond  the  point 
which  the  eye  registers.  The  friend  in  the  unseen 
stands  by  our  side  and  we  do  not  see  him.  In  the 
law  of  vibration  lies  the  scientific  explanation,  — 
an  explanation  likewise  applicable  as  to  why 
we  do  not  hear  his  voice  when  he  speaks  to  us. 
But  there  are  other  ways  of  hearing  than  by  the 


The  Gates  of  New  Life  33 

ear.  Telepathy  is  the  language  of  the  spirit. 
Thought  to  thought  responds  unerringly.  And, 
as  is  well  known,  there  are  the  phenomena  of 
clairvoyance  and  clairaudience.  When  man 
more  fully  develops  the  organs  of  his  spiritual 
body,  these  will  cease  to  be  phenomena.  They 
will  be  the  natural  faculties  of  his  daily  experience. 
"Within,  beyond,  the  world  of  ether,"  said 
Frederic  W.  H.  Myers,  "must  lie  the  world  of 
spiritual  life.  That  the  world  of  spiritual  life 
does  not  depend  upon  the  existence  of  the  material 
world  I  hold  as  now  proved  by  actual  evidence. 
That  it  is  in  some  way  continuous  with  the  world 
of  ether  I  can  well  suppose." 

This  is  to  say  that  Mr.  ]Myers,  in  contemplating 
the  cosmos,  recognizes  as  its  first  three  states  the 
physical,  the  ethereal,  and  the  spiritual.  Each  con- 
dition is  natural.  There  are  no  startling  and  revo- 
lutionary changes.  There  is  no  lapse  of  conscious- 
ness. The  absolute  continuity  of  consciousness  is 
the  truth  at  the  very  foundation  of  our  spiritual  life. 

We  need  to  disassociate  the  idea  of  our  life 
from  that  of  the  duration  of  our  physical  life. 
\Miether  in  the  physical  body  and  environment,  or 


84  They  Who  Understand 

in  the  ethereal  body  and  environment  is  im- 
material, just  as  one's  changes  of  costume  are  im- 
material to  his  essential  life  and  pursuits. 

The  continuity  of  consciousness  is  as  unbroken 
and  as  uninterrupted  by  the  withdrawal  from 
the  physical  mechanism  as  is  the  consciousness 
and  the  power  of  the  musician  by  the  loss  of  his 
piano  or  violin. 

The  Gates  of  New  Life  are  thrown  open  to  the 
man  who  has  passed  from  the  physical  to  the 
ethereal  worlds.  It  is  all  so  natural  to  him  that 
many  persons,  indeed,  have  to  be  convinced 
that  they  have  made  the  Adventure  Beautiful. 
Doctor  William  James  is  one  who  has  said  that 
he  had  to  be  led  to  look  upon  his  physical  body, 
as  it  lay  on  the  bed,  before  ^he  could  believe 
that  he  had  passed  on.  In  a  communication 
received  from  William  T.  Stead  (three  days 
after  the  Titanic  had  gone  down  and  two  days 
before  the  arrival  of  the  Carpathia  in  New  York 
had  brought  tidings  of  certainty  to  any  one), 
Mr.  Stead,  as  recorded  in  another  book  of  mine,^ 

i*'The  Adventure  Beautiful."  Boston.  Little, 
Brown,  and  Company,  1917. 


The  Cafes  of  New  Life  35 

stated  through  the  hand  of  a  friend  (who  was 
not  a  professional  psychic)  that  his  dead  son  met 
him  and  assured  him  that  he  had  passed  into  the 
next  phase  of  life ;  that  he  too  was  what  we 
have  called  "dead."  Continuing  his  automatic 
writing  ]Mr.  Stead  added :  "  I  looked  down  at 
myself;  I  looked  as  I  always  had;  and  I  said, 
*0h,  no,  this  cannot  be  true.'"  The  remainder 
of  the  story,  which  I  will  not  entirely  reproduce 
here,  was  not  only  intenseh^  interesting,  but  a 
narration  to  throw  much  light  on  the  conditions 
beyond. 

Still  more  convincing  is  the  instance,  recorded 
in  the  same  book,  of  the  transition,  and  subsequent 
message  regarding  it,  of  Mrs.  Sylvester  Baxter 
(Lucia  ]\Iillet,  a  sister  of  the  well-known  artist, 
Frank  D.  ^Millet),  because  the  message  from  Mrs. 
Baxter  included  such  verifiable  matters  as  to  be 
unmistakably  evidential,  even  to  the  most 
sceptically  searching  inquiry.  An  early  experi- 
ence of  my  own,  occurring  at  sea,  on  the  night 
of  May  19,  1896,  has  always  persisted  in  vivid 
memory.     It  was  this  : 

Wakened  in  the  night  by  what  seemed  a  cur- 


36  Tliey  Who  Understand 

rent  of  electrical  shock,  I  seemed  to  know  (rather 
than  see)  that  three  figures  stood  near  with  an 
indescribable  sense  of  joy  and  surprise;  and 
the  words,  "Is  this  all?  It  is  all  over!"  that 
(by  some  inner  perception)  I  also  seemed  to 
know  rather,  even,  than  audibly  to  hear, 
were  spoken  by  one  who  had  just  passed  into 
the  ethereal.  Afterward  I  learned  that  this 
was  the  date  coincident  with  the  death  of  Kate 
Field.  Some  months  later  when,  by  the  arrange- 
ment of  Doctor  Richard  Hodgson,  I  had  a  series 
of  seances  with  Mrs.  Piper,  Miss  Field  being  the 
chief  communicator,  I  asked  her,  at  one  time,  to 
describe  to  me  just  what  happened  on  her  first 
consciousness  of  having  withdrawn  from  the 
physical  world.  "I  found  myself  standing  on 
the  floor,"  she  said,  "in  the  room  in  which  they 
had  laid  my  body  on  a  long  table.  My  mother 
stood  by  me,  and  said  :  '  Kate,  my  child,  have  no 
fear;  come  with  me.'  And  she  took  me  to  the 
house  where  were  my  father  and  my  brother." 
In  this  connection  Miss  Field  also  said  that  in 
these  first  moments  she  thought  of  me,  and  that 
her  mother  told  her  she  would  show  her  the  way 


The  Cafes  of  New  Life  37 

to  find  me.  My  experience  that  night  on  shij>- 
board  was  described  through  the  automatic 
writing  by  Mrs.  Piper's  hand ;  although  at  that 
time  it  had  never  been  made  known. 

The  general  consensus  of  testimony  is  as  to 
the  absolute  naturalness  of  the  experiences  on 
entering  the  Gates  of  New  Life.  The  friends 
who  have  been  known  and  loved  on  earth,  and 
who  have  already  passed  on,  meet  the  one  newly 
arrived  and  explain  and  assist  in  the  adjustment 
of  the  new  conditions.  To  a  preponderating 
degree  the  testimony  is  that  almost  the  first 
thought  and  desire  is  to  be  able  to  make  some 
sign  or  token  to  those  left  desolate  on  earth: 
to  assure  them  of  the  perfect  continuation  of 
life  and  love.  The  success  in  conveying  this  as- 
surance rests  with  us  as  much  as  with  them.  If 
we  are  unable  to  respond  to  these  higher  vibra- 
tions of  touch  or  tone  or  thought,  they  have  no 
miraculous  power  to  impress  us  with  these 
manifestations.  It  must  always  be,  for  the  most 
part,  a  spiritual  recognition,  and  not  any  expect- 
ancy of  physical  phenomena.  The  highest  order 
of  communion  between  two  is  when  both  meet 


38  They  Who  Understand 

in  aspiration  and  love  and  the  nobler  activities. 
There  is  no  union  of  spirit  comparable  to  the 
uniting  for  a  noble  purpose.  Instead  of  that 
grief  which  saddens  and  pains  those  so  infinitely 
dear,  let  the  one  left  on  earth  enter  on  some 
special  line  of  sympathetic  and  helpful  work  and 
call  on  the  friend  in  the  unseen  to  lend  a  hand. 
It  will  be  amazing  to  see  how  difficulties  are 
smoothed  away;  how  circumstances  will  be 
adjusted ;  how  one  will  be  prompted  to  take  the 
right  path,  to  meet  the  right  person,  to  find  the 
right  book,  —  to  be  led  through  experiences 
which,  while  all  natural,  yet  still  combine  to 
form  a  mosaic  of  complete  preparation,  or  which 
further  the  achievement  of  the  purpose  in  hand. 
The  spiritual  world  is  an  inclusive  phrase;  it 
includes  the  present,  in  a  discrete  degree,  as  surely 
as  the  period  beyond.  To  live  the  life  of  the 
spirit  is  to  live  in  the  spiritual  world,  whether 
here  or  hereafter. 

The  interlude  of  friendship  and  companionship 
that  exists  during  the  period  when  one  of  the  two 
who  made  up  life  for  each  other  is  in  the  ethereal 
and  the  other  here  may  be  made  one  of  ineffable 


The  Gates  of  New  Life  39 

blessedness.  It  rests  with  ourselves  to  make  it 
so.  In  the  almost  universal  bereavements  in  this 
War  a  great  opportunity  is  offered  for  entering 
into  a  higher  spiritual  consciousness.  We  best 
learn  the  divineness  of  life  by  entering  into  the 
divine  realm.  And  this  realm  is  open  to  each 
and  all  of  us,  at  any  moment.  It  is  the  realm  of 
high  and  beautiful  thought. 

"  Blessed  are  the  songful  of  soul ; 
They  carry  light  and  joy  to  shadowed  lives." 

To  enter  into  the  region  of  beautiful  thought 
is  to  enter  into  the  heavenly  life.  We  build 
our  own  spiritual  life,  day  by  day;  and  thought 
is  the  material  of  which  it  is  wrought.  By 
dwelling  on  that  which  is  irritating,  annoying, 
sad,  or  depressing,  we  deplete  our  forces.  We 
also  create  around  us  an  atmosphere  impenetrable 
to  the  more  lofty  and  beautiful  spiritual  influences. 
And  more,  we  injure  those  we  love  who  are  in 
this  realm  of  thought  and  beauty.  The  Gates 
of  New  Life  are  open  to  all  who  lift  life  to  the 
level  of  unbroken  communion  with  the  mystic, 
in-dwelling  Christ.    Nor  is  this  mere  phrasing. 


40  They  Who  Understand 

It  is  a  work;  it  is  a  life  work.  Because  the 
ordinary  life  in  the  physical  world  is  inevitably 
full  of  all  possibilities  of  discord.  One  does  not 
need  to  offer  any  catalogue  of  the  things  just, 
or  unjust,  as  may  be,  that  are  dij0&cult,  depressing, 
irritating.  No  one  is  free  from  these.  But  the 
effect  they  have  upon  our  lives  and  conduct  is 
within  our  own  control.  A  man  has  been 
wronged,  misrepresented,  defrauded.  He  may 
be  absolutely  blameless.  But  the  sooner  and  the 
more  entirely  he  can  banish  it  from  his  memory, 
the  sooner  he  can  forgive  as  well  as  forget,  and 
the  better  for  his  spiritual  progress.  Sooner  or 
later  he  must  forgive,  for  that  is  the  law.  Is  it 
not  better  to  rise  to  this  at  once  and  thus  enter 
on  peace  of  mind  again  ? 

The  region  entered  by  the  Gates  of  New  Life 
is  a  spiritual  region.  They  who  understand  and 
thus  keep  to  a  high  order  of  thought  are  spiritually 
companioned  by  their  beloved  who,  being  free 
from  the  physical  discords,  are  dwelling  therein. 
Nothing  can  separate  those  who  inhabit  the  same 
atmosphere  of  thought. 

It  is  in  this  natural  companionship  of  spirit 


The  Gates  of  New  Life  41 

that  the  most  satisfactory  communion  is  found. 
Meeting  Edward  Everett  Hale  soon  after  the 
death  of  his  youngest  son,  Robert  Beverly,  who 
had  been  his  most  intimate  and  inseparable 
companion,  Doctor  Hale  said,  reaching  out  his 
hand  with  its  warm  and  generous  clasp,  "You 
don't  know  how  well  I  bear  it ;  Robbie  is  with  me 
all  the  time.  He  walks  the  streets  with  me; 
he  sits  beside  me  in  my  study."  By  this,  Doctor 
Hale  meant  the  companionship  of  spiritual  per- 
ception alone.  He  was  not  designating  any 
phenomenal  experience.  His  son  was  not  visible 
to  his  physical  sight,  nor  tangible  to  the  touch  of 
hand.  But  the  spirit-to-spirit  recognition  was 
unerring.  How  could  it  be  otherwise  when  the 
two  were  so  closely  conjoined  by  love  and  by 
temperamental  affiliations?  The  spiritual  self, 
with  its  increasing  development  of  spiritual 
faculties,  transcends  the  barrier  of  the  physical 
encasement.  It  is  the  same  order  of  direct 
communication  that  might  be  if  two  persons, 
muffled  and  enveloped  in  clothing  and  in  masks, 
who  could  not  see  each  other  because  of  the  cover- 
ing, were  yet  side  by  side  and  could  converse 


42  They  Who  Understand 

together,  directly,  with  no  difficulty.  The  spirit 
language  is  evidently  not  words,  but  thought, 
although  this  thought  is  instantly  and  uncon- 
sciously translated  into  words.  The  impressions 
conveyed  are  beyond  language;  yet  they  are 
translatable  into  language. 

One  finds  much  trace  of  this  order  of  com- 
munion with  the  invisible  world  among  the  Greeks. 
Plotinus,  whose  life  on  earth  fell  between  204 
and  269,  A.D.,  thus  relates  an  experience : 

"Often  when  I  come  to  myself  on  awakening 
from  bodily  sleep,  and,  turning  from  the  outer 
world,  enter  into  myself,  I  behold  wondrous 
beauty.  Then  I  am  sure  that  I  have  been  con- 
scious of  the  better  part  of  myself.  I  live  my 
true  life.  I  am  one  with  the  divine  order  and 
rooted  in  the  divine.  I  gain  the  power  to  trans- 
port myself  beyond  even  the  super-world.  After 
thus  resting  in  God,  when  I  descend  from  spiritual 
vision  and  again  form  thoughts,  I  ask  myself 
how  it  has  happened  that  I  now  descend  and  that 
my  soul  even  entered  the  body  at  all,  since,  in 
its  essence,  it  has  just  revealed  itself  to  me? 
Man  learns  about  divine  things  by  leading  his 


The  Gates  of  Neic  Life  43 

soul  to  know  itself  as  spiritual  that  it  may  find 
its  way,  as  a  spirit,  into  the  spiritual  world." 

PorphjTius,  a  disciple  of  Plotinus  (born  in 
Syria,  233;  died  in  Rome  304,  a.d.),  has  thus 
spoken  of  his  inner  experiences : 

"The  soul  has  the  power  to  extend  her  activity 
to  any  locality  she  may  desire.  She  is  a  power 
which  has  no  limits  and  each  part  of  her,  being 
independent  of  special  conditions,  can  be  present 
even-^vhere,  provided  she  is  pure  and  un- 
adulterated with  matter." 

That  is  to  say,  the  less  a  man  is  entangled  with 
materiality,  the  more  clear,  direct,  and  potent  are 
his  spiritual  power  and  spiritual  perceptions. 
But  let  this  idea  be  not  misleading.  A  man  is 
not  necessarily  entangled  with  materiality,  nor 
hindered  from  leading  the  life  of  the  spirit,  be- 
cause he  is  dealing  with  material  things.  He  is  in 
a  physical  world,  and  physical  matters  are  his 
inevitable  factors  of  achievement.  The  life  of 
the  spirit  does  not  mean  sinking  into  vagrancy, 
idleness,  or  pauperism.  The  life  of  the  spirit 
may  be  led  by  the  most  vigilant  laborer;  by 
him  who  is  delving  in  the  mine  or  laying  pave- 


44  They  Who  Understand 

ment  in  the  streets ;  by  the  man  who  is  controlling 
vast  and  intricate  industrial  interests;  who  is 
commanding  or  serving  in  armies;  who  is  in 
office,  shop,  study,  or  studio.  The  life  of  the 
spirit  does  not  imply  uselessness,  but,  instead, 
the  highest  degree  of  usefulness  and  efficiency. 
For  the  life  of  the  spirit  is  in  qualities;  it  is  in 
justice,  honesty,  consideration,  generosity.  The 
man  who  is  at  the  head  of  a  great  railway 
system,  with  its  vast  complication  of  the  hu- 
man factor  and  the  industrial  and  commercial 
responsibilities ;  the  man  who  is  sending  ships 
engaged  in  international  traffic  and  transit 
across  the  ocean ;  the  man  who  administers  the 
power  of  carrying  on  manufactories  and  indus- 
tries; as  well  as  the  educator,  the  preacher,  the 
philosopher,  has  every  condition  for  living  the 
life  of  the  spirit.  Let  no  one  imagine  that  the 
path  to  the  diviner  life  and  the  life  of  the  spirit 
is  in  mere  inaction ;  on  the  contrary,  it  is  the  path 
in  which  one  is  charged  with  the  highest  energy. 
The  conception  that  there  is  no  compatibility 
between  the  life  dealing  with  spiritual  and  that 
dealing  with  material  things ;  that  the  one  must 


The  Gates  of  Neic  Life  45 

be  chosen  to  the  exckision  of  the  other,  was  the 
fallacy  of  medieval  times.  It  was  then  believed 
that  the  life  of  the  spirit  was  lived  by  the  mendi- 
cant ;  the  material  life  by  the  producer.  It  was 
held  that  the  life  of  the  spirit  could  only  be  most 
truly  lived  in  the  seclusion  of  convent  or  mon- 
astery, while  we  now  realize  that  the  field  is 
the  world.  Jesus  lived  no  life  apart.  He  went 
up  into  the  mountains;  He  sought  solitude  at 
times  for  that  unbroken  communion  of  prayer 
that  recharges  the  spirit  with  divine  magnetism ; 
but  he  lived  his  life  among  men.  He  shared  with 
them  all  that  they  could  receive  of  spiritual  riches. 
Man  would  not  have  been  placed  in  a  material 
world  if  he  had  not  been  intended  to  deal  with 
its  conditions.  They  constitute  for  him  a 
school  of  discipline  and  training.  The  physical 
environment  is  the  theater  for  all  possible  exercise 
of  spiritual  qualities.  To  become  just,  truthful, 
honorable,  noble,  —  under  what  phase  of  dis- 
cipline could  man  better  learn  those  lessons  and 
develop  those  povv^ers  than  just  the  conditions  in 
which  we  now  find  ourselves  ?  But  it  is  our  con- 
sciousness and  our  increasing  knowledge  of  the 


46  They  Who  Understand 

unseen  which  conduces  to  this  increasingly  higher 
life.  It  is  the  realization  of  the  unbroken  con- 
tinuity of  life  that  sustains  the  spirit  through  dis- 
couragements and  denials  and  defeats;  that 
whispers  the  truth  that  these  are  but  temporary ; 
"just  a  stuff  to  try  the  soul's  strength  on ;"  that 
defeat  and  disaster  are  as  valuable  in  relation  to 
the  wholeness  of  life  as  are  triumph  and  pros- 
perity. It  is  the  realization  of  this  unbroken 
continuity,  the  purposes  in  view  not  interrupted 
by  the  change  of  death,  that  sustains  and  inspires 
human  life. 


II 

THE   UNBROKEN    CONTINUITY   OF    EXPERIENCE 

"And  tears  are  never  for  those  who  die  with  their 
face  to  the  duty  done." 

— John  Boyle  O'Reilly  on  "Wendell  Phillips." 

NE\^R  was  there  a  time  when  the  world 
so  eagerly  questioned  about  the  nature 
of  the  next  phase  of  life  as  now,  when 
these  untold  thousands  of  our  youth  have  sud- 
denly been  passing  from  the  battlefield  into  the 
ethereal  realm.  The  research  into  the  super- 
physical  has  become  an  enormous  quest.  It  is 
not  irrational  to  believe  that  this  is  one  of  the 
results  for  which  the  War  was  here.  For,  that  the 
most  appalling  conflict  in  ail  history  came  upon 
us  by  chance  is  not  a  tenable  conclusion.  Nu- 
merous are  the  reasons  assigned,  as  formulated 
by  statesmen  and  moralists. 

One  writer,  in  an  able  analysis  of  the  political 
and  economic  causes  for  the  most  appalling  trag- 
47 


48  They  Who  Understand 

edy  that  the  world  has  ever  known,  sums  up  all 
these  reasons  in  one,  —  "  man's  failure  to  live  as 
God  commands."  Nor  can  this  be  regarded  as  a 
mere  phrase  of  rhetoric.  "God's  command" 
is  a  law  as  inescapable  as  is  the  law  of  gravita- 
tion. He  who  breaks  it  must  suffer  the  penalty. 
We  find  the  writer  saying : 

"...  I  have  heard  the  statement  that  just 
previous  to  the  War  civilization  was  at  its  highest 
stage ;  mankind  had  evolved  —  developed,  if 
you  like  —  to  a  point  never  before  attained ; 
education  was  more  general  than  had  been  known ; 
even  the  spirit  of  charity  was  evident  in  all  lands, 
among  all  races ;  in  fact,  the  world  was  going  very 
well  and  the  dawn  of  a  better  day  was  clearly 
visible.  Therefore,  such  a  climax  of  horror  and 
suffering,  such  a  tempest  of  the  brutal  instincts 
of  primitive  man,  seems  to  be  a  negative  answer 
to  man's  well-founded  hope  of  a  better  and  a 
brighter  day.  ...  If  a  few  years  ago  a  prophet 
had  declared  what  the  world  would  see  during 
1914-1919,  he  would  have  been  judged  by  the 
majority  of  mankind  fit  for  the  asylum." 

The  special  command  that  man  has  broken  is 


The  Unbroken  Contimdfy  of  Experience      49 

cited  as  the  law,  "Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor 
as  thyself."  Justice  and  consideration  are  en- 
joined; but  selfishness  has  largely  ruled.  Now 
if  the  teachings  of  Jesus  regarding  the  conduct 
of  human  affairs  are  of  any  value  they  are  practi- 
cable. If  they  are  not  practicable,  they  are  of 
no  value.  The  counsel  to  love  one's  neighbor 
as  one's  self  is  not  that  of  a  fanatic.  It  is  the 
counsel  of  simple  justice.  Emerson  notes  that  a 
time  comes  in  a  man's  development  when  he  is 
careful  that  his  neighbor  shall  not  cheat  him. 
At  a  still  higher  degree  of  development  he  is  care- 
ful that  he  shall  not  cheat  his  neighbor.  The 
student  of  Emerson  finds  that  he  continually 
affirms  the  solidarity  of  society.  "It  is  as  great 
a  loss  to  me  that  others  should  be  low  as  that  I 
should  be  low,"  we  find  him  saying,  "for  I  must 
have  society."  It  is  an  entirely  practicable  ideal 
suggested  in  the  counsel  of  Phillips  Brooks :  "Be 
such  a  man,  live  such  a  life,  that  if  every  man 
lived  as  you  do,  this  earth  would  be  heaven."  All 
these  ideals  are  intimations  of  a  marvelous  reality 
'on  whose  threshold  we  stand. 

It  is  nothing  less  than  the  threshold  of  an 


50  They  Who  Understarid 

entirely  new  comprehension  of  the  nature,  the 
progress,  the  destiny  of  human  Ufe. 

One  signal  factor  in  this  new  initiation  has 
been  the  service  of  Frederic  W.  H.  Myers,  whose 
place  in  the  world  of  letters  as  a  scholar  of  the 
finest  classical  culture,  a  critical  thinker,  and  a 
poet,  w^as  so  widely  recognized  as  to  give  due  pres- 
tige to  an  incident  in  his  life  which  has  led  to  far- 
reaching  consequences. 

It  was  on  the  evening  of  December  3,  1869, 
that  Mr.  Myers  and  Professor  Sidgwick  were 
out  together  for  a  starlit  walk.  Mr.  Myers  was 
a  young  man  of  twenty-six.  Of  this  walk  he 
afterward  said  to  a  friend,  "I  asked  Sidgwick 
almost  with  trembling  whether  he  thought  that 
when  tradition,  intuition,  metaphysics  had  failed 
to  solve  the  riddle  of  the  universe  there  was  still 
a  chance  that  from  any  observable  phenomena  — 
ghosts,  spirits,  whatsoever  there  might  be  — 
some  valid  knowledge  might  be  drawn  as  to  a 
w^orld  unseen.  Already,  it  seemed,  he  had  thought 
it  possible;  .  .  .  and  from  that  night  onward  I 
resolved  to  pursue  this  quest."  Thus  was 
initiated,  in  that  one  moment,  the  signal  pur- 


The  TJnhrolcen  Contimiity  of  Experience      51 

pose  of  his  life.  Mr.  Myers  held  the  con- 
viction that  if  a  spiritual  world  ever  had  been 
manifested  to  man  it  must  be  manifest  in  the 
present  just  the  same.  He  more  or  less  clearly 
perceived  that  the  entire  life,  the  energy,  of  every 
day  depended  upon  some  influence  from  the  un- 
seen. Was  there  in  man  "an  abiding  psychical 
entity  far  more  extensive  than  he  knows,  —  an 
individuality  which  can  never  express  itself  com- 
pletely through  any  corporeal  manifestation"? 
Could  the  spiritual  man  function  separately  from 
his  physical  body?  Was  the  real  personality 
capable  of  being  liberated  from  its  material  or- 
ganism? Was  there  truth  to  reward  him  who 
should  diligently  search  in  the  mysterious  realms 
of  occult  phenomena?  Was  the  man,  the  spirit- 
ual man,  in  reality  independent  of  his  physi- 
cal organism?  Nothing  less  than  this  was  the 
sublime  quest  on  which  Frederic  Myers  set  out 
from  that  night.  When  (on  January  17,  1901,  in 
Rome)  he  passed  into  the  unseen,  did  he  find  the 
answer  to  his  life's  questioning  ?  The  little  tablet 
placed  to  his  memory  in  the  English  cemetery 
in  the  Eternal  City,  forever  poetically  consecrated 


52  They  Who  Understand 

by  the  ashes  of  Keats  and  Shelley,  bears  this 
fitting  inscription :  "  He  asked  life  of  Thee,  and 
Thou  gavest  him  long  life  ever  and  forever." 

At  all  events  Myers  dedicated  his  life,  his 
genius,  to  this  inquiry.  Flournoy  well  says  of 
the  spiritistic  doctrine  of  Myers,  "If  future  dis- 
coveries confirm  his  thesis  of  the  intervention  of 
the  discarnate  in  the  web  and  w^oof  of  our  mental 
and  physical  worlds,  then  will  his  name  be  in- 
scribed in  the  golden  book  of  the  initiated,  and, 
joined  to  those  of  Copernicus  and  Darwin,  he 
will  complete  the  triad  of  geniuses  who  have  the 
most  profoundly  revolutionized  scientific  thought, 
in  the  order,  Cosmological,  Biological,  Psycho- 
logical." 

That  epoch-making  book,  "Human  Person- 
ality", which  Mr.  Myers  left  as  his  imperishable 
legacy  to  mankind,  and  which  was  not  published 
until  after  its  author  had  passed  from  the  realm 
of  questioning  to  the  realm  of  replies,  is  an  en- 
cyclopaedia of  the  most  profound  and  scientific 
investigation  of  phenomena.  It  is  scientific,  it 
is  philosophic,  it  is  religious.  Its  depth  and  sin- 
cerity of  religious  tone  impart  to  its  scientific 


Th^  Z^nhrohen  Continuity  of  Experience      53 

and  philosophical  scope  an  irresistible  claim  to 
value.  The  author  studies  the  problem  of  telep- 
athy as  to  whether  this  is  the  law  of  the  direct 
intercommunion  of  the  spiritual  man;  whether 
it  is  a  supreme  truth,  reuniting  all  beings,  —  those 
in  the  physical  realm,  those  who  have  withdrawn 
from  that  realm,  —  whether  it  is  the  law  that 
unites  them  all  "in  a  splendid  universe  of  moral 
and  spiritual  life"?  The  problem  of  the  sub- 
liminal consciousness ;  the  problems  of  duty, 
prayer,  life  eternal,  and  all  their  relations  to  the 
life  that  now  is,  as  well  as  to  that  which  is  to  come ; 
the  mystery  of  genius;  these,  and  other  vital 
questions  are  marvelously  discussed  in  these  two 
large  volumes  of  "Human  Personality." 

Now  life  may  be  defined  as  the  adventure  of  the 
spirit  into  temporary  conditions  which  are  ever 
increasing  in  significance  and  enlarging  in  their 
horizons;  or  which  decrease  in  significance  and 
power  of  satisfaction,  and  whose  horizons  narrow 
instead  of  enlarge,  according  to  the  personal 
power  that  is  brought  to  bear  upon  them.  This 
power  is  increased  or  decreased  in  its  nature  by 
the  degree  of  the  goodness  and  intelligence,  or  of 


54  They  Who  Understand 

the  evil  and  the  ignorance  of  the  man  himself. 
For  all  objective  conditions  are  fluctuating  and 
are  relative  to  the  degree  of  individual  control. 
There  are  certain  laws  of  nature  which  are  fixed, 
as  the  law  of  gravitation,  for  instance.  In  rela- 
tion to  these,  man  must  control  his  own  attitude. 
He  cannot  defy  the  law  without  suffering  the 
penalty,  but  it  is  in  his  power  to  control  his  own 
attitude  in  relation  to  the  law.  The  fluctu- 
ating conditions  of  health,  or  illness;  of  some 
reasonable  degree  of  success  and  prosperity,  or 
failure  and  privation ;  the  achievement  of  in- 
creasing stores  of  knowledge,  or  the  remaining 
in  ignorance,  —  all  these  and  others  which  need 
not  be  cited  are  a  part  of  "the  flowing  conditions 
of  life"  over  which  the  individual  may  also  exer- 
cise an  increasing  control.  Even  the  momentous 
question  of  immortality  (in  its  differentiation 
from  merely  continued  existence)  is  subject  to 
the  power  of  the  individual.  For  immortality  is 
not  merely  being  alive  after  the  change  of  death ; 
it  is  the  condition  of  being  alive  now!  It  is  a 
matter  of  spiritual  vitality.  To  be  just,  consider- 
ate, sympathetic;    to  hold  service  as  one  of  the 


The  Unbroken  Continuity  of  Experience       55 

T.  — -_>__^ 

priceless  privileges;  to  be  generous  rather  than 
selfish  ;  responsive  rather  than  indifferent ;  truth- 
ful and  noble  in  every  respect,  to  be  active  in 
all  that  makes  for  the  usefulness  and  happiness  of 
the  largest  possible  number,  to  keep  one's  spirit 
in  sensitive  response  to  the  guidance  of  the  Divine 
Spirit  —  this  is  to  be  immortal  in  the  present.  Im- 
mortality is  not  a  condition,  not  a  locality.  The 
question  is  not  so  much,  Shall  we  be  immortal? 
as  it  is.  Are  we  immortal  at  this  moment?  Im- 
mortality is  something  to  be  achieved  and  in- 
creased by  living  in  the  sympathies  and  the  activi- 
ties that  create  immortality.  In  so  much  greater 
measure,  then,  as  one  has  developed  these  quali- 
ties of  the  spirit  before  death,  is  he  the  more  fitted 
to  enter  on  this  next  higher  plane  of  life.  "Let 
this  mind  be  in  you  that  was  in  Christ  Jesus"  — 
that  mind  that  is  love,  joy,  peace,  righteousness. 
To  "bear  much  fruit"  in  that  the  Father  may  be 
glorified  is  to  live  in  the  widest  relations  with 
one's  fellow  beings ;  to  render  the  service  needed 
at  the  moment,  not  counting  the  cost;  to  give 
the  gift  that  is  helpful,  though  it  leave  one's  own 
hands  empty.    For  spiritual  treasure  is  infinite, 


56  They  Who  Understand 

and  to  him  who  lives  in  the  spirit  the  supply  is 
sure.  Human  life  is  potentially  divine  life.  Re- 
ligion, in  its  highest  possibilities,  is  a  life  and  not 
a  litany,  although  the  litany  gives  its  strength 
and  support  and  direction  to  life. 

It  could  not  be  assumed  that  the  founding  of  the 
Society  for  Psychical  Research  in  1882,  some 
years  after  the  resolution  of  Frederic  Myers  to 
devote  his  life  to  the  quest  outlined  above,  was 
in  itself  the  initiation  of  a  new  and  higher 
spirituality  of  life ;  but  that  it  has  been  a  contrib- 
uting cause  no  one  can  deny.  The  last  quarter 
of  the  nineteenth  century  revealed  many  phases 
of  new  ethical  movements.  The  reconcilement 
of  science  and  religion  began ;  they  were  seen  to  be 
not  mutually  antagonistic,  but  complementary 
and  mutually  supporting.  Theosophy  arose, 
offering  a  great  explanation  of  the  phenomena 
of  the  universe;  of  the  problem  of  the  origin, 
progress,  and  destiny  of  the  soul.  Spiritualistic 
phenomena  had  opened  the  way  for  more  from 
the  mid-century  years.  Accepted,  or  denied,  it 
challenged  attention.  It  became  a  factor  in  reli- 
gious life.    All  these  movements,  and  the  increas- 


The  Unbroken  Continuity  of  Experience      57 

ing  enlightenment  of  humanity,  created  a  moral 
preparation  for  a  more  highly  developed  order 
of  human  life. 

Now  here  we  see  the  contrast  of  two  great 
opposing  forces  advancing  towards  the  future : 
Germany,  with  her  imperialistic  and  military 
ideals  teaching  the  doctrine  that  Might,  not  Right, 
is  the  arbiter  of  national  destinies;  England, 
France,  America,  Italy,  and  other  nations  imbued 
with  a  purer  ethical  purpose.  How  could  the 
advance  of  two  such  utterly  opposite  movements, 
—  the  one  for  physical  domination,  the  other  for 
moral  and  spiritual  domination,  —  result  in  any- 
thing else  than  a  terrible  conflict  ? 

For  what  was  this  War?  Had  it  not  aspects 
unknown  to  the  historic  past,  and  that  brand  it 
as  a  new  order  of  human  tragedy?  "For  we 
wrestle  not  against  flesh  and  blood,  but  against 
principalities,  against  powers,  against  the  rulers 
of  the  darkness  of  this  world,  against  spiritual 
wickedness  in  high  places."  Then  what  remains  ? 
What  can  we  do  ? 

In  this  War  we  encountered  not  men ;  we  en- 
countered fiends  from  Hades.    The  editor  of  a 


58  They  Who  Understand 

leading  American  journal  thus  characterizes  the 
Prussian  policy : 

" '  The  enemy  must  be  thoroughly  engaged  at 
once/  Nothing  could  better  illustrate  the  nau- 
seating hypocrisy,  the  bloodless  formalism  un- 
convincingly  covering  a  bloodthirsty  savagery 
which  so  constantly  characterizes  the  Prussian 
beast.  Who  are  'the  enemy'  that  are  to  be 
'thoroughly  engaged'?  Are  they  fighting  men 
who  can  fight  back?  Not  a  bit  of  it.  They 
are  unarmed,  non-combatant  messengers  of  mercy 
—  ambulance  men  risking  their  lives  in  the  al- 
ways perilous  No  Man's  Land  that  they  may 
perhaps  ease  the  pain  or  save  the  life  of  some 
tortured  and  helpless  human  being  ripped  open 
by  shrapnel  or  left  with  a  bullet-shattered  limb, 
suffering  through  terrible  hours  the  torments  of 
the  damned !  These  heroes  of  pity,  standing 
right  up  in  the  daylight,  human  targets  that  can- 
not be  missed,  men  who  have  not  fired  and  will 
not  fire  a  shot  in  this  war,  are  to  be  mercilessly 
mowed  down  by  machine  guns.  .  .  . 

"So  this  official  order  to  leave  the  dead  un- 
coffiined  and  the  wounded  uncared  for  comes  as 


The  Unbroken  Coniininfy  of  Experience      59 

no  surprise.  It  is  the  proper  fruit  of  the  upas 
tree.  It  is  akin  to  the  deliberate  and  ofHcially 
ordered  bombing  of  hospitals.  It  is  typical  of 
Prussian  militarism.  It  is  precisely  the  sort  of 
thing  that  our  young  men  have  sailed  away  across 
the  Atlantic  to  uproot  and  finally  destroy. 

"  The  German  army !  \Miat  is  it  in  reality  ? 
A  collection  of  cowards  who  shoot  down  Red 
Cross  men,  ruffians  who  rob  and  'beat  up' 
helpless  civilians,  beasts  who  mutilate  children, 
criminals  who  poison  wells  and  even  give  deadly 
sweets  to  babies,  torturers  who  crucify  prisoners 
and  abuse  wounded  enemies. 
^  "Leave  the  dead  unburied!  Abandon  the 
wounded  to  writhe  in  agony  under  the  burning 
midsummer  sun,  without  water,  without  succor, 
without  pity !  Shoot  down  the  Red  Cross 
stretcher-parties !  These  are  official  German 
orders.  This  is  the  sort  of  enemy  our  boys  fought 
in  France." 

In  this  startling  presentation  of  the  powers  of 
darkness  which  our  young  men  nobly  sprang  to 
overcome  is  revealed  the  conditions  they  met. 
Then  what  follows  ? 


60  They  Who  Understand 

"Wherefore  take  unto  you  the  whole  armor  of 
God,  that  ye  may  be  able  to  withstand  in  the 
evil  day  and  having  done  all,  to  stand."  For  this 
world  is  being  prepared  for  the  diviner  life  to  come 
in.  The  ethical  forces  had  long  been  gathering 
new  strength  and  manifesting  themselves  in  new 
forms  of  activity ;  the  materialistic  and  inhuman 
forces  of  Prussian  militarism  had  also  long  been 
gathering  new  strength  and  manifesting  them- 
selves in  increasing  activities.  The  conflict  was 
inevitable.  The  Powers  of  Evil  closed  in  a  deadly 
grapple  with  the  Powers  of  Good.  The  Powers 
of  Darkness  and  the  Powers  of  Light  were  in  their 
conflict,    i 

It  was  to  this  awful  combat  that  the  Flower  of 
American  youth  went  forth.  The  hour  is  conse- 
crated with  their  holy  knighthood. 

"And  tears  are  never  for  those  who  die  with 
their  face  to  the  duty  done  \" 

The  material,  the  spiritual,  were  arrayed  against 
each  other.  It  was  such  a  conflict  as  no  age  of 
the  world  ever  witnessed  before.  For  evil  forces 
and  righteous  forces  cannot  dwell  together.  And 
the  reason  they  cannot  longer  dwell  together  in 


The  Unbroken  Continuity  of  Experience      61 

any  semblance  of  peace  lies  deeper  still.  It  is  that 
humanity  itself  has  now  advanced  to  that  degree 
of  spiritual  development  that  requires  for  its 
existence  and  nurture  a  purer  environment.  No 
nation  is  wholly  righteous,  or  without  grave  sins 
against  the  ideal  state.  Humanity  has  developed 
to  that  higher  degree  when  it  can  no  longer  con- 
done its  own  sins,  whatever  they  may  be.  Tem- 
perance, economic  and  social  justice,  must  now 
come.  It  is  the  law  and  the  prophets.  History 
reveals  that  at  intervals  of  about  two  thousand 
years  there  appears  some  order  of  a  restatement 
of  spiritual  truth;  a  new  manifestation;  a  new 
call  to  "Turn  to  the  Lord  and  live."  For  in  God 
alone  is  life. 

"For  Evil,  in  its  nature,  is  decay, 

And  any  hour  may  blot  it  all  away." 

May  it  not  be  true  that  now,  at  the  approach 
of  two  thousand  years  from  the  appearance  of 
Jesus,  the  Christ,  a  new  wave  of  spirituality  sweeps 
over  the  land?  But  does  so  divine  a  thing  as 
spirituality  of  life  manifest  itself  in  aspects  too 
appalling  for  reference  ?    The  tragedy  of  Belgium ; 


62  They  Who  Understand 

of  the  Lusitania,  of  countless  atrocities,  are  these 
the  pledge  and  prophecy  of  a  new  wave  of  spirit- 
uality ?  The  association  of  the  two  is  unthinkable 
and  incredible.  So  we  might  rationally  say. 
There  is  a  mystery  still  deeper  than  this.  May  we 
try  to  penetrate  it,  in  hov/ever  feeble  a  measure  ? 
It  is  an  established  truth  that  God  works 
through  orderly  laws.  Evolution,  not  revolu- 
tion, rules  the  kingdom  of  nature.  If  we  sow 
wheat  we  do  not  reap  a  harvest  of  tares.  Cause 
and  eJBFect  go  hand  in  hand  in  orderly  sequence. 
But  the  very  advent  of  a  higher  wave  of  spiritual- 
ity forces  a  deadly  conflict  with  the  evil  that  is 
in  the  world,  both  individually  and  nationally. 
If  a  man  to-day  rise  to  a  new  height  of  spiritual 
power,  what  is  the  first  effect  ?  It  is  to  extermi- 
nate the  sin  that  he  had  yesterday.  If  he  were 
unjust  yesterday  he  must  free  himself  from  in- 
justice to-day.  Now  the  very  degree  of  moral 
development  that  humanity  has  achieved  will  no 
longer  tolerate  the  sins  that  civilization,  up  to  this 
time,  has  tolerated.  The  very  good  focuses  the 
evil.  The  conflict  was  inevitable.  The  causes 
had  existed  in  the  immaterial  world.    They  were 


The  Unbroken  Continuity  of  Experience      63 

recognized  by  the  spiritual  consciousness  of  man- 
kind. They  encountered  the  invisible  challenge 
of  this  higher  moral  consciousness,  and  they  crys- 
tallized and  formulated  themselves  for  the  awful 
conflict. 

On  the  higher  plane  the  War  was  a  spiritual 
drama.  We  have  talked  of  Armageddon;  we 
saw  it  before  us.  The  Forces  of  Good,  the  Forces 
of  E\'il,  met  in  their  grapple.  Now,  in  relation 
to  the  youth  who  have  leaped  forward  into  this 
conflict;  whose  noble  purpose,  whose  high  en- 
thusiasm, whose  devotion  to  lofty  ideals  have  led 
them  on,  —  what  is  revealed  to  us  when  they  sac- 
rifice their  physical  life  in  this  tragic  struggle  ? 

This  is  revealed  :  that  these  gallant  young  spirits 
have  forever  allied  themselves  with  all  that  makes 
for  righteousness ;  that  their  devotion  to  true  ideals 
has  consecrated  itself  by  seal  and  sign  eternal ! 

They  have  died  that  the  noblest  ideals  of  hu- 
manity shall  live !  What  ineffable  blessedness  is 
theirs !  A\Tiat  ineffable  blessedness  is  ours  by  all 
that  sharing  of  their  nobleness  through  undying 
love ! 

Humanity  has  now  achieved  that  degree  of 


64  They  Who  Understand 

spiritual  development  which  requires  a  finer  and 
purer  environment.  That  is  what  this  War, 
effacing  and  exterminating  old  conditions  and 
creating  new  ones,  is  to  give  us.  A  world  remade 
beckons  us  on  in  a  not  remote  future.  It  will  not 
be  a  sudden  transformation.  We  shall  not  close 
our  eyes  in  sleep  on  the  world  as  it  is  and  awaken 
in  the  morning  to  find  it  transformed  to  paradise. 
But  that  we  are  at  that  standpoint,  even  now, 
when  all  conditions  for  life  are  contemplated  from 
a  loftier  range  of  vision  and  estimated  by  purer 
ideals,  could  hardly  be  denied.  The  larger 
recognition  of  the  spiritual  forces  of  life  in  the 
scale  of  the  practicable  and  the  applicable  is,  in 
itself,  a  signal  advance  of  the  race.  It  is  not  the 
lack  of  sound  judgment,  but  the  test  and  the  sign 
of  the  sound  and  wise  judgment  to  recognize 
unseen  forces  as  those  whose  influences  are  the 
determining  and  the  permanent.  The  hardships 
of  the  physical  life  increase;  physical  resources 
constantly  become  more  difficult  to  compass. 
What  then?  Are  we  to  learn  that  beyond  the 
physical,  —  in  the  superphysical  realm,  —  exists 
an  infinite  supply  on  which,  hitherto,  man  has 


The  Unbroken  Continuity  of  Experience      65 

drawn  to  only  a  very  slight  extent?  Are  we  to 
recognize  that  when  Emerson  said,  in  reply  to  an 
assertion  that  the  world  was  coming  to  an  end, 
that  he  "could  get  along  without  it  ",  the  remark 
is  not  mere  wit  and  persiflage,  but  states  an 
wholly  practicable  truth?  We  relinquish  the 
physical  resources  of  life  to  an  increasing  extent. 
They  grow  more  difficult,  more  impossible  for  us 
to  compass.  The  high  and  ever  higher  prices  of 
food,  clothing,  shelter,  —  the  three  primary  neces- 
sities of  life,  —  suggest  to  one  the  wonder  as  to 
how  he  is  to  continue  on  this  planet  at  all  I 
Travel  becomes  so  expensive  that  he  vaguely 
contemplates  his  restriction  to  such  portion  of  the 
earth's  surface  as  he  may  be  able  to  traverse  on 
his  two  feet.  What  is  to  be  the  end?  Are  we 
to  be  crowded  off  the  earth  altogether  ? 

This  brings  us  to  the  verge  of  the  recognition 
of  the  true  nature  of  our  life. 

Man  is  a  spiritual  being  and  an  inhabitant  of 
the  spiritual  universe.  It  is  only  in  the  most 
temporary  and  fragmentary  sense  that  he  is  a 
physical  being  and  an  inhabitant  of  the  physical 
universe.    His  nature  is  so  largely  adjusted  to 


66  They  Who  Understand 

respond  to  higher  realms  that  the  fact  of  being,  as 
it  were,  compelled  to  transfer  much  of  his  life, 
here  and  now,  to  those  higher  realms,  cannot  be 
a  misfortune.  It  is  as  if  he  were  inhabiting  only 
the  lower  floor  of  his  dwelling,  while  above  were 
successive  floors  far  more  delightful.  But  he 
remains  on  the  accustomed  level  and  will  not  be 
persuaded  to  mount  higher.  Suddenly  floods 
come ;  or  fire  invades  his  familiar  interior,  and  to 
escape  destruction  he  must  ascend  to  the  next 
story  of  his  house.  Once  bestowing  himself  there 
he  finds  it  far  more  desirable ;  but  he  would  never 
have  made  this  change  had  he  not  been  forced 
into  it.  Is  it  not  possible  that  this  analogy  ex- 
plains the  present  condition  of  humanity?  Are 
we  not  being  forced  to  a  higher  level  of  life  ?  Our 
real  world  is  that  among  the  unseen  potencies 
and  under  superphysical  conditions. 

In  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  people 
were  crossing  the  continent  to  the  Pacific  coast  in 
conveyances  dra\\Ti  by  horses.  A  quarter  of  a 
century  later  they  were  crossing  it  in  railway 
trains.  The  steam  engine  had  taken  its  own  place. 
Morse  invented  the  telegraph  which  carried  mes- 


The  Unhrol'en  Contimnty  of  Experience      67 

sages  with  a  rapidity  undreamed  of  before. 
Marconi  perfected  the  system  of  sending  messages 
through  the  ether.  We  have  learned  to  navigate 
the  air  and  to  sail  under  the  surface  of  the  water. 
The  horse  is  superseded  by  the  motor  car.  En- 
tering into  the  use  of  the  more  subtle  mechanical 
forces,  man  will  also  develop  and  use  the  more 
spiritual  forces  in  application  to  his  personal  life. 
Immortality  is  more  in  increasing  degrees  of  con- 
sciousness than  it  is  the  question  of  duration.  He 
who  lives  in  a  more  abounding  spiritual  conscious- 
ness, now  and  here,  is  thereby  more  immortal. 
For  in  consciousness  is  the  true  life. 

And  then?  Then  it  is  for  us,  for  those  in  the 
seen  and  in  the  unseen,  to  unite  in  building  a  new 
world.  If  the  War  leaves  us  no  better  than  it 
found  us,  all  its  appalling  tragedy  and  suffering 
and  its  incalculable  loss  will  have  been  in  vain. 
Are  we  to  take  up  life  again  on  no  higher  round  ? 
Not  so.  I  The  evolution  of  a  nobler  civilization 
is  working  itself  out  on  lines  of  harmony  with  the 
eternal  purpose;  All  the  ease  and  pleasure  and 
joj^ulness  of  life  that  seemed  so  innocent  and  so 
full  of  enjoyment  was  yet  deteriorating  if  it  tended 


68  They  Who  Understand 

to  retard  this  nobler  progress  into  the  new  civili- 
zation ;  if  we  rested  content  in  it,  knowing  how 
imperfect  was  its  structure ;  knowing  that  it  har- 
bored economic  injustice,  selfishness,  self-indul- 
gence; that  it  tolerated  sins  of  omission  and 
commission.  Yet  it  was  a  pleasant,  easy-going 
life,  with  an  abundance  of  charity,  even  if  not 
over-abundant  in  justice ;  not  without  its  nobler 
aims,  even  with  rather  prevailing  ideals  of  having 
a  good  time.  For  the  most  part  all  fairly  well-to- 
do  people  had  a  very  good  time,  indeed.  In  the 
old,  easy-going  sense  of  those  days,  no  one  has  a 
good  time  now.  Those  good  times  were  not,  in 
themselves,  evil,  but  if  they  were  retarding  the 
more  noble  organization  of  society,  then  they 
should  give  way  to  these  more  difficult  conditions 
which  are  yet  doing  the  nobler  work  in  forcing  a 
more  just  and  a  finer  adjustment  of  national  life. 
Not  unfrequently  is  destruction  the  initial  step 
toward  regeneration. 

Two  forces  are  now  in  mortal  combat ;  one  is 
evolving  the  divine  harmony ;  one  is  opposing  and 
retarding  that  evolution.  What  service  is  being 
rendered  by  this  retarding  agency?    It  is  within 


The  Unbroken  Continuity  of  Experieiice      69 

the  personal  choice  of  each  man  to  identify  him- 
self with  that  which  is  advancing  all  that  is  noblest 
in  life,  or  with  that  force  which  is  opposing  it. 

"See,  I  have  set  before  thee  this  day  life  and 
good  and  death  and  evil ;  .  .  .  I  call  heaven  and 
earth  to  record  this  day  against  you,  that  I  have 
set  before  you  life  and  death,  blessing  and  cursing ; 
therefore  choose  life.  .  .  .  That  thou  mayest 
love  the  Lord  thy  God,  and  that  thou  mayest 
obey  his  voice,  and  that  thou  mayest  cleave  unto 
him ;  for  he  is  thy  life,  and  the  length  of  thy 
days;  .  .  ." 

And  again : 

"  Be  strong  and  of  a  good  courage,  fear  not,  nor 
be  afraid  of  them  :  for  the  Lord  thy  God,  he  it  is 
that  doth  go  with  thee ;  he  will  not  fail  thee,  nor 
forsake  thee." 

To  identify  one's  self  with  the  forces  of  higher 
progress  which  are  those  of  the  life  and  good,  as 
against  those  which  are  for  death  and  evil  is  to 
go  on  in  an  unbroken  continuity  of  experience, 
whether  in  the  body  or  out  of  the  body.  The 
spiritual  man  has  thus  identified  himself  with  that 
which  is  permanent  and  immortal. 


70  They  Who  Understand 

" ,  .  .  \ATiat  is  excellent, 
As  God  lives,  is  permanent." 

For  it  is  that  which  is  — 

"  Built  of  tears  and  sacred  flames, 
And  virtue  reaching  to  its  aims ; 
Built  of  furtherance  and  pursuing ; 
Not  of  spent  deeds,  but  of  doing." 

To  the  soul  that  has  chosen  life  and  good,  that 
has  identified  itself  with  the  highest,  the  chrism 
of  the  divinest  joy  is  given.  It  has  been  finely 
said  of  our  soldiers  that  they  died  that  the  nation 
might  live.  But  beyond  this  is  an  even  greater 
truth,  —  they  died  that  they  themselves  might 
live !  That  they  thus  attained  to  a  life  so  far 
more  abundant  than  that  which  they  have  laid 
down  that  their  joy  is  full. 

"Never  were  there  so  many  knights,  or  so 
noble,"  we  find  Doctor  Stires  again  saying ;  "but 
all  grateful  for  the  honor  of  serving,  and  all  ready 
to  conquer  death  with  a  shout  or  a  smile,  and 
gladly  to  cross  the  frontier  for  the  higher  service. 
It  is  light,  light,  everywhere  light,  and  no  dark- 
ness at  all." 


The  Unbroken  Continuity  of  Experience      71 

These  who  make  the  Adventure  Beautiful  have 
thereby  so  made  themselves  a  component  part  of 
the  nobler  order  of  life  that  in  this  brief  time  they 
have  thus  compassed  the  spiritual  development 
ordinarily  only  achieved  through  a  long  period 
of  discipline.  We  can  only  hold  fast  to  our 
invincible  faith  in  God.  The  "dreams  of  the  joy 
of  dear  ones  in  the  Life  eternal",  as  so  tenderly 
phrased  in  some  preceding  citation  from  Doctor 
Stires,  are,  in  reality,  spiritual  insights  and  spirit- 
ual visions.  They  are  glimpses  into  the  divine 
realities  which  God  permits  us  to  enjoy  for  our 
sustaining  and  our  courage  to  still  press  on. 
Nor  are  these  visions  in  a  merely  symbolic  sense. 
Actual  knowledge  of  those  in  the  unseen  is  wholly 
possible.  Actual  communion  with  them,  spirit 
to  spirit,  may  be  enjoyed.  Love  is  the  supreme 
and  irresistible  potency,  and  where  love  unites, 
all  the  powers  of  earth  and  air  are  powerless  to 
divide  those  who  are  thus  united. 

The  release  of  the  spiritual  man  from  his  physi- 
cal body  is  not  to  uncomprehended  conditions. 
Science  gives  us  definite  knowledge  of  the  ethereal 
environment.     Consciousness  is  not  a  function 


72  They  Who  Understand 

of  the  physical  brain,  but  a  function  that  manifests 
itself  hy  means  of  the  physical  brain,  although  it 
is  as  independent  of  this  instrument  and  as  much 
greater  than  can  be  thus  manifested,  as  the  musi- 
cian is  independent  of  his  piano  or  violin ;  or  as 
his  resources  of  music  to  manifest  are  as  far  greater 
than  any  instrument  can  afford  him  adequate 
scope  for  producing.  The  question  of  the  order 
of  life  immediately  succeeding  the  life  on  earth 
is  a  much  larger  one  than  that  involving  the  fact 
of  communication  alone.  It  demands  a  more 
adequate  comprehension  of  the  very  nature  of 
life  itself.  Sir  Oliver  Lodge  says  of  death  that  it 
is  "an  important  and  momentous  event,  truly, 
even  as  birth  is ;  a  waking  up  to  new  conditions, 
like  a  more  thorough  emigration  than  can  be  taken 
on  a  planet ;  but  no  destruction,  no  lessening  of 
power.  Rather  an  enhancement  of  existence,  an 
awakening  from  this  earthly  dream,  a  casting  off 
of  the  trammels  of  the  flesh,  the  realization  of  a 
body  more  adapted  to  the  needs  of  an  emancipated 
spirit,  the  entering  on  a  wider  field  of  service, 
the  uniting  with  the  many  who  have  gone  on  be- 
fore." 


The  Unbroken  Continuity  of  Experience      73 

Communication  between  the  two  states  is  no 
longer  to  be  regarded  as  either  apart  from  the  reli- 
gious life,  or  as  chiefly  identified  with  scientific 
investigation ;  but  as  a  natural  aspect  of  the  inter- 
relations. For  the  joys  of  companionship  are 
not  ended  with  the  passing  of  one  into  the  life 
beyond ;  a  new  order  of  companionship  may  be 
established,  with  its  ineffable  sweetness  and  satis- 
faction and  inspiring  joy.^ 


Ill 

EVIDENTIAL  COMMUNICATION  AND  PROOF 

"I  transport  myself  to  your  side  and  say,  speaking 
just  as  you  would  to  any  friend,  'Come,  I  have  some- 
thing to  say  to  you.'  I  insist  until  you  fairly  hear  my 
voice.  The  flesh  is  stubborn,  and  it  is  often  almost 
impossible  to  make  myself  heard.  .  .  .  All  space  is 
peopled  with  spiritual  beings.  When  you  leave  the 
body  you  enter  this  space  (as  you  call  it)  but  which  is 
more  solid  than  a  million  earths,  and  all  the  planets 
of  the  universe  are  but  as  a  pebble  in  comparison. 
Death  has  a  great  work  to  perform.  Every  plan,  every 
movement,  is  directed  from  this  side.  All  the  discov- 
eries, all  the  new  inventions,  are  projected  from  here. 
Our  surroundings  are  adapted  to  our  uses.  We  have 
homes  and  houses  and  gardens  and  streets ;  but  there 
are  mysteries  here  beyond  your  power  to  comprehend. 
As  one  rises  from  realm  to  realm  all  things  become 
grander  and  more  beautiful." 

COMMUNICATION  between  those  in  the 
unseen  and  in  the  seen  is  so  abundantly 
proven   that  from   this   time   on,  in    all 
discussion  of  the  matter  in  these  pages,  it  will 
be  taken  for  granted.     If  the  modern  evidence 
that  has  accumulated  in  such  vast  volume  within 
74 


Evidential  Communication  and  Proof       75 

the  past  sixty  years,  to  say  nothing  of  the  records 
of  the  Bible  and  of  the  entire  world,  indeed, 
from  all  earliest  time,  —  if  all  this  evidence  has 
not  established  its  existence,  the  offering  of  any 
additional  matter  would  be  useless.  Communi- 
cation is  as  well  attested  as  is  the  working  of. 
the  telegraph.  Its  experience  in  some  form  is 
an  almost  universal  one.  These  experiences 
occur  to  those  who  believe  and  to  those  who  do 
not  believe. 

The  invisible  world  penetrates  the  visible, 
and  throngs  of  beings  we  do  not  see  surround  us 
constantly.  The  reason  we  do  not  see  them  is 
because  the  etheric  body  is  in  a  state  of  too  high 
vibration  to  be  registered  by  the  physical  eye. 
In  another  book^  I  have  endeavored  to  present 
the  scientific  explanation  of  this  in  full  detail. 
In  the  two  chapters  in  that  book,  "The  Powers 
of  the  Ethereal  Body",  and  "The  Nature  of  the 
Ethereal  World",  it  was  the  aim  to  make  this 
clearly  comprehensible  from  the  basis  of  actual 
laboratory  experiments  and  from  the  latest  scien- 

i"The  Adventure  Beautiful."  Boston.  Little, 
Brown,  and  Company,  1917.      /; 


76  They  Who  Understand 

tific  data  as  evolved  by  psychic  research.  In  a 
word,  as  has  already  been  said,  the  physical 
eye  and  the  physical  ear  respond  to  only  a  limited 
range  of  vibration;  and  all  that  is  above  or  be- 
low that  range  cannot  therefore  be  either  seen 
or  heard.  The  extension  of  sight  by  means  of 
the  telescope  above  the  range  of  the  eye,  or  by 
the  microscope  below  its  range,  will  readily 
occur  to  all.  Thus  those  who  have  withdrawn 
from  the  physical  plane  may  be  about  us,  although 
their  presence  is  not  reported  by  the  senses. 
Clairvoyants  claim  that  they  encounter  in  the 
public  streets  as  many  inhabitants  of  the  ethereal 
world  as  of  this.  The  psychology  of  the  future 
must  take  cognizance  of  the  development  of 
spiritual  perceptions  as  they  become  factors  in 
all  present  experience.  The  organic  spiritual 
body  that  pervades  the  physical  body,  that  has 
corresponding  organs  and  powers,  must  be 
reckoned  with.  Death  is  merely  the  process 
of  separation  between  these  two  bodies.  The 
testimony  of  the  senses  in  regard  to  a  vast  range 
of  life  is  so  restricted  and  limited  as  to  be  worth- 
less.   Who  has  ever  seen  or  touched  electricity? 


Evidential  Ccymmumcation  and  Proof       77 

What  could  be  the  testimony  of  the  eye,  unaided 
by  the  telescope  and  the  spectroscope,  regard- 
ing the  sidereal  system?  Epes  Sargent,  one  of 
the  most  notable  thinkers  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  after  presenting  a  long  and  convincing 
array  of  evidence  for  the  existence  and  recogni- 
tion of  the  ethereal  (or  spirit)  body,  says : 

"From  the  facts  here  brought  together,  it 
may  be  inferred  that  the  spirit  body  is  not  a 
mere  hypothesis;  it  is  proved  by  the  phenom- 
ena and  the  inductions  of  evidence;  by  the 
objective  appearance  of  spiritual  beings;  by 
the  testimony  of  clairvoyants  who  can  see  them, 
and  by  the  testimony  of  spiritual  beings  them- 
selves, who  claim  not  only  a  super-ethereal 
organism,  human  in  its  form,  but  the  power 
of  assuming  visible  bodies  like  those  which  at 
different  stages  of  the  earth  life  they  had  while 
here;  by  the  phenomena  of  somnambulism  and 
clairvoyance  giving  evidence  of  spiritual  senses, 
for  as  the  bodily  senses  imply  their  object,  so 
do  the  spiritual  senses  imply  theirs,  and  are 
prophecies  of  an  endless  life ;  by  all  the  analogies 
that  reason  and  experience  supply;    and  by  the 


78  They  Who  Understand 

belief  of  men  in  all  ages  and  climes,  —  a  belief 
founded  on  the  actual  reappearance  of  those  who 
have  died. 

"Add  to  these  considerations  the  facts  of  a 
manifold  consciousness  pointing  to  a  complex 
but  unique  organism;  also  the  marvels  of  mem- 
ory, in  which  faulty  impressions  inhere  and  per- 
sist which  are  inexplicable  under  the  theory  of 
materialism,  involving  as  it  does  a  constant  flux 
and  removal  of  the  molecules  of  the  organs  of 
thought.  Only  the  existence  of  a  spiritual  body 
can  account  for  these  things." 

As  a  matter  of  fact  the  War,  thus  precipitating 
such  an  enormous  number  into  the  next  phase 
of  life,  compels  consideration  of  their  immediate 
conditions  and  of  their  relations  to  the  visible 
world.  The  psychical  experiences  connected  with 
the  War  are  already  numerous. 

Recently  ])Jrs.  D.  Parker,  of  Herts,  England, 
was  engaged  in  some  household  duty  when  sud- 
denly she  heard  her  son's  voice  calling  "Mother", 
as  if  in  great  pain.  The  son  was  a  private  in  a 
Middlesex  regiment.  So  real  was  the  voice  that 
she  dropped  her  work  and  hastened  down-stairs, 


Evidential  Communication  and  Proof       79 

feeling  that  he  must  have  arrived.  The  call 
was  repeated,  but  she  found  no  one.  His  letters 
ceased,  and  she  felt  as  sure  that  he  had  passed 
from  this  life  as  she  did  after  receiving,  some  days 
later,  a  notification  from  the  War  Office  that  he 
had  been  missing  since  April  24th,  the  date  on 
which  she  had  heard  the  voice.  For  a  time  no 
word  reached  her;  then  a  neighbor  received  a 
letter  from  another  soldier  saying  that  an  Aus- 
tralian battalion  had  found  the  dead  body  of 
young  Parker  and  had  given  it  a  military  funeral 
and  burial. 

A  young  American  lady,  Miss  Annie  Haider- 
man  of  New  York  City,  was  in  London  in  the 
winter  of  1915-1916,  and  was  one  of  many  of 
the  noble  women  who  "adopted"  a  soldier  in  the 
ranks  for  whom  to  personally  care.  ]\Iiss  Haider- 
man's  charge  was  a  Belgian,  and  later  he  was 
killed  on  the  field.  After  her  return  to  New  York 
jNIiss  Halderman  (whose  own  beauty  of  life  is  an 
ideal  of  womanhood)  still  kept  in  communication 
with  his  wife,  who  had  been  left  with  young  chil- 
dren and  to  whom  the  sympathy  and  care  given 
to  the  dead  father  was  continued.     By  associating 


80  They  Who  Understand 

herself  with  one  or  two  other  friends  Miss  Haider- 
man  was  enabled  to  assure  the  widow  continued 
aid  that  the  children  might  be  educated  and 
cared  for.  One  night  she  was  awakened  by  the 
feeling  of  a  presence,  and  in  the  darkness  there 
came  before  her  distinctly  the  face  of  a  man  which 
remained  visible  long  enough  for  her  to  perfectly 
see  and  remember  the  countenance.  A  little 
while  after,  the  widow,  in  a  letter  of  gratitude, 
inclosed  a  photograph  of  her  dead  husband, 
saying  she  felt  that  he  would  be  glad  that  Miss 
Halderman  should  have  it.  It  was  the  face 
that  had  appeared  to  her ! 

This  occurrence  seems  to  indicate  that  he 
fully  understood  the  aid  that  was  being  extended 
to  his  wife  and  children ;  that  he  wished  the  kind 
and  generous  friend  to  know  that  he  was  aware 
of  it ;  that  he  was  in  some  way  enabled  to  make 
his  face  visible  to  her,  and  that  he  influenced 
his  wife  to  send  the  photograph  that  she  might 
identify  the  face  she  had  seen. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  relations  between  the 
inhabitants  of  the  two  realms  are  far  more  simple 
and  natural  than  has  been  fully  realized.    There 


Evidential  Communication  and  Proof       81 

is  no  such  separation  as  is  often  believed.  Nor 
is  communication  limited  to  that  which  is  strik- 
ingly supernormal.  There  is,  without  doubt, 
a  very  large  body  of  communication  that  is 
seldom  recognized  as  such  because  it  comes 
in  so  entirely  natural  a  manner.  It  comes  into 
one's  mind,  so  to  speak,  and  is  either  accepted 
as  one's  own  individual  thought,  or  as  coming 
from  some  unformulated  source.  And  it  is  also 
true  that  one  cannot  prove,  even  to  himself,  in 
many  of  these  cases,  whether  the  matter  is,  or  is 
not,  generated  by  his  own  mind.  But  there  are 
also  many  cases  when  the  thought,  the  prompt- 
ing, or  the  information  so  links  itself  with  objec- 
tive things,  unknown  at  the  time  to  the  individual, 
that  he  can  identify  the  communication  as  com- 
ing from  some  one  in  the  unseen  and  often  can 
even  identify  the  source  from  whence  it  comes. 
Such  an  instance  as  this  is  related  by  Emma 
Hardinge  Britten,  of  England^  whose  initial 
essays  in  the  world  of  effort  were  on  the  musical 
and  dramatic  stage,  but  whose  native  psychic 
gift  came  to  so  dominate  her  that  she  became  an 
eminent  medium.     Born   in   affluence  and  cul- 


82  They  Who  Understand 

ture,  Emma  Hardinge  found  herself,  in  early 
girlhood,  left,  at  the  death  of  her  father,  with- 
out resources,  and  she,  with  her  mother,  came  to 
New  York.  During  the  voyage  they  came  to 
know  one  of  the  officers  of  the  ship,  who  offered, 
on  his  next  crossing,  to  bring  to  Miss  Hardinge  a 
package  that  an  English  friend  desired  to  send. 
The  time  came  when  the  steamer  would  have 
been  approximately  due,  but  no  alarm  was  felt 
at  a  little  delay,  as  the  sailing  was  in  the  winter, 
and  ships  at  that  time  were  frequently  some  days 
late  if  they  encountered  severe  storms.  But  one 
evening  she  felt  the  presence  of  some  one  unseen 
whom  she  seemed  to  recognize  intuitively  as 
this  young  officer;  and  it  came  into  her  mind 
that  the  ship  had  gone  down  and  that  all  on 
board  were  lost.  There  was  nothing  visible  nor 
audible;  but  to  the  inner  sense  all  this  seemed 
to  be  made  clear.  She  even  felt  a  sensation  as 
of  icy  water.  Yet  nothing  that  could  be  classed 
as  phenomena  occurred.  The  information  was 
not  conveyed  with  the  definiteness  of  the  clair- 
audient  voice,  or  of  automatic  writing.  But, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  ship  was  never  heard  from. 


Emdential  Communication  and  Proof       83 

There  were  no  "S.O.S."  calls  possible  in  those 
days.  That  she  went  down  with  all  on  board 
the  unbroken  silence  alone  attested.  It  does 
not  require  a  faith  that  degenerates  into  credulity 
to  fully  accept  the  apparent  happening  that  the 
officer  came  to  Miss  Hardinge  and  communicated 
to  her  his  fate. 

A  remarkable  instance  of  communication  is 
related  by  George  Thompson,  M.P.,  of  London. 
]Mr.  Thompson,  recognized  as  an  eloquent  speaker 
in  Parliament,  came  to  this  country  as  an  anti- 
slavery  speaker,  in  the  decade  of  1850-1860. 
At  one  time  he  was  the  guest  of  Isaac  Post,  who, 
with  his  family,  had  been  much  interested  in 
the  spiritualistic  phenomena  produced  through 
the  medium  of  the  Fox  sisters,  and  through 
whose  hand  was  automaticall}-  written  the  book 
entitled  "Light  from  the  Spirit-World."  At 
the  invitation  of  ]Mr.  Post,  Mr.  Thompson  had  a 
seance  with  the  eldest  of  the  sisters.  Some  years 
before  this  ]Mr.  Thompson  had  been  in  Hindu- 
stan on  a  government  commission  and  had  made 
some  personal  friends  among  the  Hindoos,  two 
or  three  of  whom  had  since  passed  to  the  beyond. 


84  They  Who  Understand 

It  occurred  to  him  that  if  he  could  get  a  message 
from  any  one  of  these  it  would  be  a  real  test. 
He  mentally  inquired  if  any  of  them  were  present, 
and  three  affirmative  raps  followed.  His  re- 
quest for  a  message  was  also  answered  in  the 
same  way,  and  the  signal  was  given  for  using 
the  alphabet.  This  w^as  a  tedious  process,  but 
one  that  was  much  employed  in  the  early  days 
of  messages ;  it  consisted  of  repeating  the  alphabet 
until  the  signal  of  a  rap  indicated  the  right  letter, 
and  thus  words  were  spelled.  ]\Ir.  Thompson 
began  repeating  the  letters  and  received  the 
first  signal  at  the  letter  ''d",  followed  by  the 
letters  "w-a-r-k-a-n-t-h-t-a-g-o-r-e-e."  Mr.  Post 
remarked  that  this  was  a  totally  meaningless 
medley,  and  that  there  must  be  some  mistake. 
He  advised  his  friend  to  try  again.  Mr.  Thomp- 
son studied  the  slip  of  paper  on  which  he  had 
written  down  these  apparently  unconnected 
letters,  and  then  exclaimed  ''Dwarkanth 
Tagoree!'*  For  here  was  the  Hindoo  name  in 
full.  Mr.  Thompson  uttered  some  friendly  words 
of  surprise  and  delight,  to  which  a  shower  of  raps 
responded.    Tagoree  had  been  a  friend  especially 


Evidential  Communication  and  Proof       85 

prized ;  a  man  of  unusual  ability  and  goodness 
and  also  a  Hindoo  of  high  rank.  By  means  of 
the  tedious,  yet  reasonably  direct  process  of  the 
alphabet,  a  conversation  of  some  half  hour's 
duration  ensued.  ]\Ir.  Thompson  put  some 
questions  to  test  the  alleged  identity.  One  of 
these  was  as  to  a  gift  sent  by  the  Hindoo  friend 
to  Mr.  Thompson's  wife.  The  correct  answer 
(a  cashmere  shawl)  was  spelled  out.  The  Hindoo 
had  visited  London,  and  ]\Ir.  Thompson  asked 
for  the  place  they  had  last  met?  The  reply 
named  the  place  correctly  (Regent  Street),  and 
one  or  two  other  test  questions  met  an  equally 
true  reply. 

The  "Undiscovered  Country"  is  no  longer  un- 
discovered or  unexplored.  But  its  true  nature 
is  only  recognized  through  spiritual  perceptions 
and  aspirations.  An  interesting  editorial  article 
in  the  New  York  Tribune  for  August  4,  1918, 
conveyed  a  surprised  but  yet  enforced  recogni- 
tion of  the  rapidly  increasing  interest  and  belief 
in  the  realities  of  communication  between  the 
two  realms.  The  writer,  however,  instanced 
Eusabia   Palladino's    phenomena    as    something 


86  They  Who  Understand 

so  remote  from  any  spirituality  of  life,  any  true 
religious  feeling,  as  to  discredit  the  growing 
interest.  Now,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  nothing  is 
less  connected  with  the  persistence  of  loves  and 
friendships  and  spiritual  intercourse  between 
those  who  have  passed  on  and  those  here  than  the 
crude  material  phenomena  of  which  the  Nea- 
politan peasant  woman  was  a  striking  purveyor. 
If  it  had  its  own  interest  in  suggesting  unex- 
plained forces  of  nature  or  laws  not  yet  grasped, 
that  alone  might  give  it  claim  to  scientific  in- 
vestigation. 

A  still  more  interesting  and  remarkable  phase 
of  unquestioned  physical  phenomena  is  that  so 
ably  studied  and  described  by  Doctor  Craw- 
ford in  the  Irish  family,  where  every  opportunity 
was  gladly  afforded  him  to  investigate  strange 
occurrences.  For  instance,  when  a  large  table 
was  raised  in  the  air  by  some  invisible  means, 
Doctor  Crawford  found  that  if  he  passed  between 
the  medium  (a  young  girl)  and  the  table  when  it 
was.  suspended  in  the  air,  it  immediately  fell. 
He  set  himself  to  work  to  penetrate  the  reason 
for  this.      His  investigations  led    him   to  con- 


Evidential  Communication  and  Proof       87 

elude  that  some  power,  like  that  of  a  rod,  pro- 
jected itself  from  the  body  of  the  medium  and 
raised  the  table;  and  that  his  passing  between 
the.  girl  and  the  table  broke  this  current  of  power. 
Doctor  Crawford's  study  of  this  case  was  car- 
ried on  with  scientific  appliances,  scales,  mirrors, 
and  phonographs  to  record  and  establish  the 
reality  of  sounds  or  raps ;  and  he,  as  a  scientific 
engineer,  brought  to  his  task  trained  knowledge 
in  an  exceptional  manner.  Now,  however  curi- 
ous are  these  phenomena,  they  are  no  more  spirit- 
uality, they  are  no  more  religious  growth  and 
culture,  than  are  the  experiments  in  a  chemical 
laboratory.  Persons  who  should  mistake  these 
for  religious  spiritualism  would  go  very  far 
astray.  With  Eusabia  Palladino,  when  the 
exhibition  of  her  powers  was  given  in  this  coun- 
try, Doctor  Hyslop  refused  to  have  anything  to 
do.  Not  being  a  physicist,  he  was  not  a  specialist 
in  investigating  physical  phenomena,  and  even 
admitting  its  genuineness,  partially  or  wholly, 
as  may  be,  it  had  too  little  significance  for  him 
to  command  his  time  or  interest.  We  need  to 
discriminate  between  a  possible  communion  of 


8S  They  Who  Understand 

spirit  to  spirit,  in  all  the  beauty  of  love,  all  the 
sacredness  of  religious  feeling,  all  the  recognition 
of  the  communion  as  natural  to  the  continuity 
of  life  and  as  simply  the  continuation  of  that 
spiritual  intercourse  between  the  seen  and  the 
unseen  that  pervades  all  the  Scriptures, — we  need 
to  discriminate  between  this  and  mere  physical 
phenomena,  however  strange  that  may  be  as 
estimated  from  known  physical  laws. 

Let  one  take  some  such  communication,  for 
instance,  as  that  received  through  automatic 
writing  by  Mrs.  Fanny  H.  Park,  of  Liverpool, 
who  (under  her  maiden  name  of  "F.  Heslop") 
has  published,  in  a  book  entitled  "Speaking 
Across  the  Border-Line",  many  of  these  beauti- 
ful and  most  interesting  messages  received  from 
her  husband.  A  little  word  about  him  contrib- 
utes to  the  better  understanding  of  the  mes- 
sages. John  Park  was  a  Scotsman,  filled  with 
the  love  of  life,  a  keen  sportsman,  a  lover  of  na- 
ture who  "revelled  in  the  beauty  of  river  and 
loch",  and  whose  bias  of  mind,  Mrs.  Park  tells 
us,  "was  toward  the  practical  rather  than  the 
poetical,    while   for   mysticism    and    all   occult 


Evidential  Communication  and  Proof       89 

matters  he  had  no  toleration."  Mr.  Park  was 
a  man  of  strong  affections  and  tenacious  friend- 
ships; many  of  his  friends^said  to  Mrs.  Park 
after  his  passing  that  he  "was  the  most  lovable 
man"  they  had  ever  known.  His  wife  says  of 
him  that  his  character  "was  a  combination  of 
strength  and  tenderness,  strong  in  rectitude  and 
every  manly  vu'tue,  but  tender  and  understand- 
ing toward  the  weakness  of  others."  Mrs. 
Park  adds  : 

"We  never  spoke  of  his  approaching  death, 
and  the  thought  of  his  return  from  the  spirit 
world  and  the  possibility  of  communion  with 
him  never  entered  our  minds.  To  us,  death 
meant  separation,  and  separation  meant  death. 
So  when  he  left  me,  I  seemed  in  my  loneliness 
and  desolation  to  have  passed  also  into  the  land 
of  shadows." 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  also,  Mr.  Park  had  been 
intolerant  of  the  idea  of  spirit  communion. 
Neither  he  nor  his  wife  felt  any  sympathy  with 
the  theory.  But  after  his  death,  through  the 
hand  of  another  person,  these  messages  to  his 
wife  began  to  be  given  through  the  medium  of 


90  They  Who  Understand 

automatic  writing;  they  established  his  identity 
so  unmistakably  that  she  had  no  choice  but  to 
accept  them.  This  was  rather  perplexing  to 
many  of  their  friends;  and  he,  apparently  hear- 
ing a  discussion  that  took  place,  thus  referred  to 
it  to  Mrs.  Park  : 

"Our  friend  is  quite  right  in  thinking  that 
when  on  earth  I  opposed  all  suggestion  of  spirit 
communion.  I  thought  there  was  blasphemy 
in  the  very  idea.  My  whole  early  training  had 
bent  my  mind  in  the  wrong  direction.  Now, 
with  my  fuller  vision,  and  stripped  of  all  the 
theological  misconceptions  of  my  youth,  I  see 
how  utterly  wrong  I  was.  And  to  me,  one  of 
the  most  wonderful  discoveries  of  this  life  here 
is  that  it  is  possible  to  return  to  full  communica- 
tion with  you,  my  beloved,  and  continue  in 
almost  perfect  and  unbroken  joy  the  union  con- 
summated twenty  years  ago." 

Later,  he  began  to  use  his  wife's  hand  for  these 
communications.  Mrs.  Park  notes  that  she  was 
filled  with  dread  lest  these  were  the  product  of 
her  own  subconscious  mind.  Perceiving  this, 
he  wrote : 


Evidential  Communication  and  Proof       91 

"  I  see  you  have  been  going  through  a  needless 
distress  of  mind  as  to  the  authorship  of  these 
letters.  After  much  reading  of  modern  litera- 
ture on  the  subject  you  have  flown  to  the  con- 
clusion that  possibly  your  subconscious  mind 
was  impersonating  me,  and  that  these  letters 
were  not  from  me  at  all.  My  dear,  how  could 
you  think  such  a  foolish  thing?  Have  I  not 
given  you  test  after  test  of  my  identity?  Have 
you  not  received  information  beyond  your  wildest 
dreams?  Surely,  you  know  by  this  time  that 
it  is  I  who  wTite  to  you,  my  love  that  surrounds 
you.  Never  let  this  doubt  stay  with  you  for 
a  moment  again.  Cast  it  out  of  your  mind  and 
cling  to  the  definite  assurance  which  I  now  give 
you  that  I  am  constantly  with  you,  whether 
you  realize  it  or  not,  inspiring  your  mind,  smooth- 
ing your  path,  warding  off  all  evil  influences,  and 
loving  you  all  the  time  with  a  love  beyond  any- 
thing you  can  dimly  imagine." 

]Mrs.  Park  had  no  thought  or  intention  of  pub- 
lishing these  messages,  feeling  they  were  a  sacred 
part  of  her  private  life,  but  she  was  constrained 
to  do  so  for  the  same  reason  that  Sir  Oliver  Lodge 


92  Theij  Who  Understand 

felt  constrained  to  give  the  widest  publicity  to 
the  messages  received,  or  which  he  believed  that 
he  received,  from  his  son,  Raymond.  In  giving 
these  in  full,  with  a  certain  admixture  that  was 
sure  to  be  misunderstood  by  a  large  number  of 
readers.  Sir  Oliver  did  violence  to  his  own  feel- 
ings, but  he  felt  he  had  no  right  to  withhold  any 
contribution  that  could  throw  light  on  an  im- 
portant subject.  INIr.  Park,  with  the  wider 
vision  of  the  life  beyond,  urged  the  publication 
of  his  letters.  He  saw  in  them  something  that 
he  believed  mfght  comfort  the  sorrowing.  When 
Mrs.  Park  decided  to  do  so  he  wrote : 

"Now  I  am  glad  to  see  you  are  arranging  the 
letters  I  have  written  you  from  time  to  time. 
They  will  be  especially  valuable  to  the  bereaved. 
...  I  am  glad  you  are  willing  to  have  them 
circulated,  for  it  is  just  what  I  tell  you  in  these 
letters  that  needs  to  be  known.  How  love 
grows  and  deepens  on  this  side;  how  it  can  be 
communicated  to  those  who  are  in  affinity  with 
one  another  (when  one  is  still  on  the  earth  plane) 
and  that  is  the  special  work  of  ministering  spirits." 

In  one  of  the  first  of  these  letters  Mr.  Park 


Emderitial  Communication  and  Proof       93 

describes  his  passing  to  the  spirit  life.  The 
matter  is  made  so  clear  and  seems  to  bear  such 
testimony  to  the  naturalness  of  the  transition 
that,  at  the  risk  of  unduly  quoting,  I  shall  ven- 
ture to  transcribe  it. 

Mr.  Park  wrote : 

"When  I  died  I  simply  fell  into  a  state  of  un- 
consciousness and  was  at  once  taken  into  my 
mother's  loving  care.  .  .  .  Gradually  the  won- 
ders and  beauty  of  this  new  world  unfolded  them- 
selves. The  loveliness  of  the  trees  and  flowers, 
the  grandeur  of  the  mountains,  the  glint  of  dis- 
tant lakes  seemed  familiar,  yet  all  spiritualized. 
It  was  some  time  before  I  could  realize  what 
had  happened,  and  that  death  had  really  passed ; 
so  I  rejoiced,  for  my  suffering  on  earth  had  been 
great.  Then  spiritual  illumination  came  to  me, 
I  developed  new  powers,  and  was  literally  born 
again.  They  carried  me  to  my  beautiful  home, 
and  every  flower  I  loved  was  there  to  greet  me. 
Oh,  such  roses !  Would  that  you  could  see  them 
too.  .  .  .  How  can  I  tell  you  of  this  new  and 
beautiful  life?  ...  I  see  now  that  only  the 
germ  of  truth  is  taught  on  earth,  overladen  with 


94  They  Who  Understand 

much  error.  You  hardly  reaHze  that  you  have 
the  power  to  express  God  in  your  lives.  .  .  . 
Remember,  you  are  building  your  home  here  all 
the  time  you  dwell  on  earth.  It  is  the  outer 
expression  of  your  thought.  All  spiritual  and 
beautiful  thought  produces  beautiful  surround- 
ings. ...  I  am  busy  perfecting  our  home,  but 
it  cannot  be  completed  until  you  join  me.  .  .  . 
You  are  never  alone  .  .  .  but  no  spirit,  however 
pure  and  beautiful,  must  ever  come  between 
your  soul  and  God.  Because  you  have  given 
yourself  into  the  divine  keeping  nothing  of  any 
kind  can  harm  you.  Banish  every  vestige  of 
fear  from  your  mind.  You  are  in  God's  care, 
and  your  guides  will  help  to  keep  evil  influences 
away." 

These  last  lines  are  especially  suggestive,  as 
many  persons  make  an  objection  to  any  idea  of 
communication  with  the  unseen,  or  to  the  idea 
of  receptivity  to  influence  from  those  beyond, 
by  saying  that  they  feel  all  influence  should 
come  to  us  directly  from  God.  In  that  they 
are  quite  right,  only  is  it  not  always  possible, 
even  in  this  world,  to  love  God  more  the  more  we 


Evidential  Communicaiion  and  Proof       95 

love  our  friends,  our  associates,  or  the  more  sym- 
pathy and  active  good  will  we  feel  and  manifest 
to  every  one  ? 

"  0  loved  the  most,  when  most  I  feel 
There  is  a  lower  and  a  higher;'* 
And  again : 

"The  love  that  rose  on  stronger  wings, 

Unpalsied  when  he  met  with  Death 
Is  comrade  of  the  lesser  faith 
That  sees  the  course  of  human  things.'* 

That  is,  the  more  entirely  the  soul  goes  forth 
to  the  divine;  the  more  one  "loves  God",  to 
use  a  common  and  ever  comprehensive  expres- 
sion, the  more  truly  does  he  love  his  friends ;  and 
the  converse  is  also  true.  We  do  not  make  the 
objection,  in  this  present  life,  that  we  cannot, 
or  should  not,  love  our  friends  because  we  love 
God.  On  the  contrary,  the  more  deeply  any 
nature  is  attuned  with  the  divine,  the  larger  is 
the  capacity  for  associations  and  friendships. 
"My  friends  come  to  me  unsought",  said  Emer- 
son ;  "the  great  God  Himself  gave  them  to  me." 
Why  should  the  love  of  God  and  the  love  of  friends 


96  They  Who  Understand 

be  in  any  mutual  exclusiveness  of  each  other 
when  the  friends  have  passed  into  the  next 
phase  of  life?  The  divine  aid  is  not  less  if  it 
come  through  the  means  of  a  friend,  in  the  seen 
or  in  the  unseen. 

An  instance  of  communication  from  the  be- 
yond that  is  one  of  the  most  simple  and  natural 
as  well  as  impressive,  one  which  has  never  before 
been  made  public,  but  which  I  have  permission 
to  use  here,  —  is  related  by  Mrs.  Bradley,  then 
living  in  Michigan.  The  story  would  lose  if 
its  narrative  were  changed  from  the  simple  form 
in  which  she  herself  relates  it,  and  which  is  thus 
given  in  her  own  words : 

"My  name  is  Nellie  L.  Bradley,  and  I  have 
lived  for  twenty-eight  years  in  Muskegon  (Michi- 
gan), my  present  home.  My  husband  and  I 
have  been  devoted  lovers  for  forty-five  years, 
and  I  am  just  a  cheerful,  plain,  sunny-tempered 
woman,  never,  at  any  time  in  my  life,  a  profes- 
sional medium,  or  anything  of  that  sort.  Never- 
theless, I  have  had  some  remarkable  experi- 
ences in  that  line,  one  of  the  strangest  of  which 
I  will  now  relate. 


Evidential  Communication  and  Proof       97 

"On  the  first  day  of  the  February  of  1907  I 
was  sitting  by  the  window  sewing,  when  the  voice 
of  my  dead  sister  said :  '  Nellie,  you  must  go 
away,  or  you  will  not  live  many  months/  My 
sister  was  i\Irs.  Villa  Stowe,  who  had  lived  in 
Grand  Rapids.  I  had  always  called  her  'Dar- 
ling', for  she  was  my  idol,  and  the  bond  between 
us  was  very  close.  She  had  died  in  the  August 
of  1906.  I  had  been  suffering  for  some  time  with 
rheumatism  and  was  perhaps  illy  able  to  endure 
the  chill  and  dampness  of  the  spring.  \Mien 
my  husband  came  in  I  told  him  of  what  my 
sister  had  said,  and  that  she  had  added  that  the 
way  would  be  opened.  From  that  moment  I 
began  preparing  for  a  journey,  although  circum- 
stances made  it  seem  extremely  difficult,  if  not 
impossible  for  us  to  leave." 

Mrs.  Bradley  here  explained  how  the  un- 
dreamed-of arrival  of  a  friend  from  Duluth 
combined  with  other  circumstances  to  enable 
them  to  leave  at  once,  and  she  thus  continues : 

*'Mr.  Bradley  had  bought  tickets  for  Havana, 
although  he  did  not  know  why  he  chose  that  city, 
as  we  had  only  intended  going  to  Florida.     We 


98  They  Who  Understand 

stopped  in  Florida,  and  only  then  did  my  hus- 
band tell  me  that  he  had  extended  our  journey 
to  Cuba.  Arriving  at  Havana  we  went  to  the 
Hotel  Tuileries,  and  a  little  later  we  recalled  that 
a  young  man  from  our  city,  Earl  Patton  of 
the  United  States  Army,  was  stationed  in  that 
locality,  and  we  went  to  see  him.  On  returning 
we  found  we  had  taken  the  wrong  car,  and  look- 
ing about  to  find  some  one  who  spoke  our  lan- 
guage, we  noticed  a  lady  in  deepest  mourning, 
accompanied  by  a  gentleman,  sitting  near  us. 
I  turned  and  said  to  them,  smiling,  'Pardon  me, 
but  do  you  speak  English?'  He  replied  in  the 
affirmative  and  added,  'What  can  I  do  for  you?* 
We  made  known  our  mistake;  he  directed  us 
aright  and  expressed  the  hope  that  we  were 
pleasantly  located,  saying  that  there  were  de- 
lightful rooms  in  their  hotel  overlooking  the 
harbor.  He  wrote  the  address  on  a  card,  and 
we  left  the  car;  but  on  reaching  our  hotel  we 
found  them  waiting  to  tell  us  that  the  rooms 
of  which  they  had  spoken  had  been  taken  mean- 
time, but  giving  us  another  address  equally 
pleasant,   to  w^hich  we  removed  that  evening. 


Evidential  Communicaiion  and  Proof       99 

This  casual  conversation,  with  our  thanks  for 
their  courtesy,  was  all  that  passed  between  us. 
Nor  did  we  expect  to  see  them  again. 

'^Usually  I  sleep  well;  but  occasionally  there 
IS  an  exception,  and  I  soon  realized  that  night 
that,  despite  fatigue,  I  should  not  sleep.  A 
cold  wave  passed  over  me  and  a  voice  said, 
'This  is  Marie ;  they  called  me  Sweet  INIarie  from 
the  old  song.'  I  strained  my  eyes,  startled,  and 
although  the  street  light  was  shining  dimly 
through  the  shutters,  I  could  see  nothing.  Nev- 
ertheless I  felt  this  sentient  presence,  and  I 
said:  'I  don't  know  you;  what  do  you  want 
of  me?' 

"'Oh!'  the  plaintive  young  voice  answered, 
'I  want  you  to  take  a  message  to  my  mother. 
I  have  tried,  oh  so  long,  and  you  are  the  first 
one  I  could  talk  to.'  I  protested,  'But  I  don't 
know  your  mother,'  and  she  said:  'Oh!  yes, 
you  do.  Please  tell  her  I  cannot  be  happy 
while  she  grieves  so  deeply;  it  holds  me  to  the 
earth.' 

''  Now  this  was  not  a  dream.  I  was  never  more 
completely  awake  and  in  full  consciousness.     I 


100  They  Who  Understand 

asked  IVIarie  questions  about  herself,  all  of  which 
she  answered,  telling  me  that  she  died  four  years 
ago,  at  the  age  of  twenty-three.  Finally  I  begged 
her  to  leave  me  that  I  might  sleep ;  and  at  part- 
ing she  said :  '  My  father  will  take  you  by  the 
hand  and  say  that  you  have  given  him  more 
comfort  than  any  one  else.'  In  the  morning 
I  told  my  husband  of  the  experience,  and  he 
remarked  that  it  would  be  strange  if  we  met 
these  people  again  and  that  he  should  be  glad 
to  have  an  opportunity  of  asking  them  if  they 
had  such  a  daughter.  But  so  far  as  we  knew 
the  incident  was  closed,  and  we  were  so  engaged 
with  our  sightseeing  that  we  almost  forgot  the 
matter." 

A  few  nights  later,  Mrs.  Bradley  said,  her 
husband  proposed  that  they  should  go  to  dine 
at  "Harvey's",  and  as  he  spoke  a  cold  wave 
passed  over  her.  Before  she  could  reply  a  voice 
spoke  to  her  inner  ear  saying,  "No,  no,  please 
go  to  the  Chinese  restaurant;  there  you  will 
meet  my  father  and  mother  and  dine  with  them." 
Mrs.  Bradley  was  so  startled  she  could  hardly 
relate  this  to  her  husband;    and  he  at  once  re- 


Evidential  Communication  'aiid  Vrcnf  '  ipV 

plied  :  "  Yes,  let's  see  it  out ;  it  would  be  strange, 
indeed,  if  these  people  were  there." 
^Irs.  Bradley  thus  resumes  the  story : 
"We  started  down  under  the  avenue  of  date 
palms,  in  the  moonlight,  on  our  way  to  the 
Chinese  restaurant,  and  all  the  way  Marie's  voice 
kept  sounding  beside  me.  We  found  it  crowded, 
but  seeing  two  vacant  seats  at  some  distance  we 
proceeded  toward  them,  when  my  husband  sud- 
denly grasped  my  arm  and  said,  in  a  low  tone : 
*If  there  are  not  those  people  we  met  in  the  car.' 
A  sudden  wave  of  excitement  and  awe  swept 
over  me  as  the  voice  of  the  dead  girl  again  spoke 
distinctly  at  my  ear,  saying,  insistently,  'Ask 
my  mother,  ask  her  about  Marie.'  The  lady 
and  gentleman  rose  at  our  approach,  with  a 
smile  of  recognition,  and  begged  us  to  dine  with 
them.  In  my  agitation  I  at  once  asked  the 
lady  if  she  knew  any  one  by  the  name  of  '  Marie '  ? 
She  grew  deadly  pale  and  dropping  her  knife, 
exclaimed,  'Why  do  you  ask?  How  did  you 
hear  that  name?  Indeed  I  know;  she  was  my 
darling  daughter  whom  we  lost  four  years  ago; 
we  called   her  Sweet  Marie,  for  the   old   song.' 


1X5?'  Tliey  Who  Understand 

My  husband  then  interposed  and  begged  we 
would  say  no  more  until  after  dinner,  inviting 
the  gentleman  and  lady  to  return  with  us  to  our 
apartment  that  we  might  tell  them  the  story." 

The  details  that  INIarie  had  told  INIrs.  Bradley 
proved  to  be  correct  in  every  particular,  and  her 
parents  were  deeply  affected.  On  their  leave- 
taking,  Mrs.  Bradley  further  states  that  the 
gentleman  took  her  hand  and  repeated  exactly 
the  words  about  the  comfort  she  had  given  them 
that  Marie  had  before  asserted  her  father  would 
say. 

This  little  incident  illustrates  the  natural 
and  simple  way  in  w^hich  communication  from 
the  unseen  is  interwoven  with  the  ordinary  occur- 
rences of  daily  life.  The  great  error  is  in  regard- 
ing communion  and  companionship  between 
the  seen  and  the  unseen  as  a  phenomenal 
occurrence,  rather  than  as  a  natural  and,  to  a 
great  extent,  a  constant  experience  in  daily  life. 
All  tendencies  to  the  abnormal  are  not  to  be 
considered  as  inevitably  conjoined  with  psychical 
gifts,  but  rather  as  due  to  their  abuse,  or  their 
absence.     The  life  of  the  spirit,  whether  in  or 


Emdeniial  Communication  and  Proof     103 

withdrawn  from  the  physical  body,  is  a  normal 
life.  So  far  as  it  varies  from  the  normal,  it  is 
simply  defective  as  a  spiritual  life.  The  narra- 
tions of  the  mingled  life  between  the  inhabitants 
of  the  physical  and  of  the  ethereal  realms  per- 
sist through  all  the  ages.  Boccaccio,  in  his  life 
of  Dante,  relates  that  when  the  poet  died  the 
*'Divina  Commedia"  was  found  unfinished,  and 
the  manuscript  was  sent  to  Can  Grande  lacking 
the  last  thirteen  cantos  that  now  appear.  The 
poet's  sons,  Pietro  and  Jacobo,  were  anxiously 
questioned  about  the  missing  cantos,  but  they 
knew  nothing  of  them.  One  night,  however, 
Dante  appeared  to  his  son,  Jacobo,  "his  face 
shining  with  light,  and  when  the  son  asked  if  he 
were  living,  replied :  '  Yes ;  but  in  the  true 
life,  not  yours.'  Then  it  occurred  to  Jacobo  to 
ask  his  father  if  he  had  finished  his  work  before 
he  passed  to  the  true  life,  and  if  he  had,  where 
was  the  conclusion  to  be  found.  To  which 
question  came  the  answer,^ 'Yes,  I  completed 
it ' ;  and  then  it  seemed  his  father  took  Jacobo 
by  the  hand  and  led  him  to  the  room  in  which 
he  had  lived  and,  touching  a  panel  in  the  wall, 


104  They  Who  Understand 

said:  'That  which  you  seek  is  here';  and  hav- 
ing said  this,  he  disappeared."  And  when  the 
sons  looked,  the  next  day,  there  were  the  miss- 
ing cantos.  ''And  in  great  joy  they  copied 
them,"  continues  Boccaccio,  "and  sent  them  to 
Messer  Cano,  and  then  added  them  to  the  im- 
perfect poem;  and  in  this  way  the  work  which 
had  been  carried  on  so  many  years  was  finished." 
No  one  can  realize  the  true  nature  of  the  present 
life  until  he  also  realizes  the  true  nature  of  the 
change  we  call  death.  Those  who  pass  on  are  not 
asleep.  Those  who  pass  on  are  not  removed 
into  conditions  incomprehensible  to  those  here. 
They  enter,  so  far  as  they  are  fitted,  on  more 
intense  activities  and  a  larger  range  of  conscious- 
ness, and  thus  become  more  alive  than  is  possible 
in  the  limitations  of  the  physical  world.  The 
conviction  of  immortality  and  of  the  eternal 
progress  of  the  spirit  requires  for  its  completest 
atmosphere  of  growth  and  its  manifestation  in 
reality  the  knowledge  of  the  reality  of  communi- 
cation between  those  in  the  seen  and  the  unseen. 
Without  this  know^ledge  there  may  be  (and  is) 
faith  in  God  and  faith  in  immortality  as  a  condi- 


EviderMal  Communication  and  Proof     105 

tion,  vague  and  ungraspcd,  but  some  way,  some 
time,  to  be  recognized  as  true;  but  with  this 
knowledge  (of  the  absolute  unity  of  life  and  the 
unbroken  communication)  the  faith  becomes 
clear  and  intelligible,  not  vague.  It  becomes 
an  ever-present  reality  of  the  immediate  hour, 
sustaining,  encouraging,  and  revealing  the  practi- 
cal nature  of  the  divine  aid  in  every  hour  of  life. 
It  assures  us  we  are  not  left  alone.  If  the  reli- 
gious man,  who  does  not  accept  the  Spirit- 
ualists' faith  in  the  communication  and  the 
continued  companionship  between  those  who 
have  passed  on  and  ourselves  —  if  he  asserts 
his  belief  and  full  reliance  on  the  help  of  God; 
if  he  only  looks  to  Jesus  for  aid  —  why,  that 
is  good ;  but  that  faith  is  not  lessened,  nor  neces- 
sarily at  all  changed,  by  a  little  knowledge  as 
to  the  ways  and  means  by  which  the  Divine 
Power  helps  us.  "Are  they  not  all  ministering 
spirits?" 

Nor  do  we  fully  enter  into  the  realities  and 
the  nobler  possibilities  of  the  present  life  until 
we  realize  that  we  are,  even  now  and  here, 
inhabitants  of  both  realms.     In  every  achieve- 


106  They  Who  Underdatid 

ment  of  life  we  draw  upon  ethereal  forces.  The 
ethereal  realm  interwoven  with  our  own  is  not 
a  miracle  region;  it  is  another  phase  of  nature. 
In  fact,  life  here  could  not  exist  at  all  unless  it 
drew  upon  the  life  beyond.  There  is  a  perpetual 
inflowing  of  ethereal  energy,  and  if  this  were 
checked,  that  which  we  know  as  the  physical 
world  would  cease  to  exist.  The  ethereal  world 
is  far  more  real  than  is  the  physical.  Stephen 
Phillips  embodies  an  absolute  fact  in  the  lines : 

"  I  tell  you,  we  are  fooled  by  the  eye  and  the  ear ; 
These  organs  muflBe  us  from  the  real  world 
That  lies  about  us." 

The  more  clearly  the  vision  extends  into  the 
more  real  world  the  more  power  is  unlocked  to 
draw  upon  for  achievements.  Then  does  one 
ally  himself  with  the  diviner  forces.  Then  does 
he  learn  how  to  transmute  his  energy  into  power. 
For  energy  is  not  synonymous  with  power.  En- 
ergy may  be  restless  and  dissipate  itself  to  little 
purpose.  Power  is  calm,  serene,  uninterrupted, 
unremitting,  and  perfects  itself  in  definite  achieve- 
ments.   All  problems  of  life  are  really  spiritual 


Evidential  Communication  and  Proof     107 

problems.  There  is  no  line  of  demarcation.  In 
the  last  analysis  Love  is  the  only  working  philos- 
ophy of  life.  Love  is  light  and  beauty  and 
power.  Love  alone,  in  the  larger  and  higher 
sense,  makes  endeavor  successful.  "Love  feels 
no  burden,  thinks  nothing  of  trouble,  pleads 
no  excuse  of  impossibility.  He  that  loveth 
flieth  and  rejoiceth."  He  that  loveth  dwells 
in  that  harmonious  atmosphere  in  which  there 
is  no  waste  of  energy.  The  initial  condition  for 
any  form  of  worthy  achievement  is  to  banish 
every  discordant  thought  and  establish  that 
harmony  which  rests  alone  on  the  basis  of  uni- 
versal love  and  good  will.  It  is  when  living  in 
this  diviner  air  that  communication  with  those 
in  the  unseen  becomes  easy  and  a  frequent  part 
of  the  natural  experience  of  every  day. 

"  Let  nothing  disturb  thee, 
Nothing  affright  thee ; 
All  things  are  passing ; 
God  never  changeth ; 
Patient  endurance 
Attaineth  to  all  things ; 


108  They  Who  Understand 

Whom  God  possesseth 
In  nothing  is  wanting,  — 
Alone  God  sufBceth." 

/Nor  is  the  "possession"  of  God  a  mere  phrase 
of  abstract  and  incomprehensible  significance. 
It  is  the  practical  duty  of  life,  and  it  is  the  most 
practicable  of  duties.  We  possess  God  when 
His  divine  spirit  possesses  and  informs  and 
dominates  our  own.  Life  is  a  spiritual  drama, 
and  every  day's  experience  may  be  invested  with 
a  kind  of  magical  enchantment.  The  enlarge- 
ment of  interests  by  the  extension  of  thought 
and  vision  into  the  unseen;  by  the  conscious- 
ness of  the  constant  telepathic  communion  that 
may  be  held  with  friends  there,  is  the  very  re- 
demption of  life  from  the  commonplace  and  the 
trivial  to  the  plane  of  the  significant  and  the 
imiversal. 


IV 


THE  natuhalness  of  the  next  phase  of 

LIFE 

"The  soul  looketh  steadily  forward,  creating  a 
world  before  her,  lea\'ing  a  world  behind  her,  and  the 
web  of  events  is  the  flowing  robe  in  which  she  is  clothed." 

—  Emerson. 
"This  world  is  not  conclusion, 
A  sequel  Ues  beyond." 

—  Emily  Dickinson. 

THE  absolute  naturalness  claimed  for  the  next 
phase  of  human  life  is,  by  a  paradox,  its 
most  bewildering  attribute.  The  language 
of  the  Bible  has  been  taken  literally  to  an  over- 
whelming extent,  where  it  is  intended  to  be  only 
sjTnbolic  and  figurative.  The  literal  interpreta- 
tion of  this  language  has  been  handed  down 
through  so  many  ages,  it  has  been  so  universally 
taught,  that  it  is  little  wonder  the  world  is  so 
generally  disposed  to  accept  these  ideas.  It  is 
not  strange  that  with  the  symbolic  picturing  of  a 
state  of  rest,  the  suggestion  of  activities  should 
109 


no  They  Who  Understand 

seem  a  desecration.  Or  if  the  conviction  has  been 
inculcated  that  sleep,  poetically  invested,  is  the 
condition  after  this  phase  of  life,  to  endure  until 
some  mystical  and  incomprehensible  resurrection 
takes  place ;  or  that  a  more  or  less  literal  accept- 
ance of  golden  streets,  palm  branches,  and  harps 
possesses  the  mind,  —  these  ideas,  too,  being  en- 
twined with  tender  and  sacred  associations,  — 
it  is  little  wonder  that  a  different  philosophy,  one 
involving  no  break  in  the  continuity  of  activities, 
might  be  regarded  as  lacking  in  religious  rever- 
ence. 

Yet  a  deeper  study  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus  will 
disclose  new  points  of  view.  Were  the  more 
modern  conception  of  spiritual  life  based  on  mere 
phenomena  alone,  with  little  heed  of  the  religious 
feelings,  it  would  naturally  repel  persons  of  the 
higher  order.  Unless  this  somewhat  different 
conception  of  death  can  be  spiritualized  and  made 
a  vital  part  of  our  religious  faith,  not  held  as 
antagonistic  to  it,  the  conception  will  not  meet 
with  any  universal  recognition  nor  win  any  uni- 
versal belief. 

But  is  it  not  true  that  religion  is,  in  its  very 


The  Naturalness  of  the  Next  Phase  of  Life    111 

nature,  progressive  ?  Or  rather,  perhaps,  that  as 
man  progresses  it  reveals  its  truth  to  him  more 
and  more  completely?  "I  have  many  things  to 
tell  you,  but  you  cannot  bear  them  now,"  we 
find  Jesus  saying.  In  the  enlarging  conceptions 
of  scientific  truth  that  record  themselves,  succes- 
sively, through  the  ages,  generation  after  genera- 
tion, we  see  how  the  views  of  nature  change; 
how  the  attitude  and  belief  of  one  century,  or  one 
generation,  is  discarded,  or  greatly  changed,  by 
the  next.  May  this  not  be  equally  true  in  regard 
to  the  great  problem  of  the  origin,  the  development, 
the  destiny  of  man  ?  I  do  not  phrase  this,  "  the 
destiny  of  the  soul",  as  if  the  soul  were  something 
apart  from  the  man  himself.  That  phrasing  is 
misleading.  It  belongs  to  the  past,  when  the 
conception  of  man  was  that  of  the  visible  form 
which  possessed,  we  felt  sure,  a  soul ;  but  of  what 
mysterious  nature  could  not  be  conjectured. 
Now  we  realize  the  transient  aspect  of  the  visible 
man;  we  realize  that  his  physical  body  is  no 
more  himself  than  his  clothing  is  himself;  that 
the  real  man  is  simply  manifesting  himself  by 
means  of  his  physical  body  as  the  mechanism, 


112  They  Who  Understand 

the  instrument,  of  his  contact  with  the  physical 
world. 

What  is  his  destiny  as  an  immortal  being? 
We  follow  him  through  the  physical  environ- 
ment; what  next  succeeds  that?  Can  we  still 
follow  him  after  he  has  w^ithdrawn  from  the 
physical  world?  Can  we  penetrate  into  the 
ethereal  realm  of  "the  encircling  spirit  world"? 
Through  all  ages  this  spirit  world  has  been  felt; 
the  intimations  of  immortality  are  always  in  the 
air.  Modern  spiritualism  focused  and  verified 
many  of  these  intimations ;  the  purely  scientific 
work  of  psychical  research  has  contributed  valu- 
able aid ;  but  now  intuition  and  increasing  spirit- 
uality of  life  are  bringing  to  bear  a  force  of  con- 
viction and  a  larger  grasp  of  knowledge  than  has 
before  been  revealed.  Science  and  spirituality 
go  hand  in  hand  to  this  end.  Science  has  re- 
vealed and  formulated  the  existence  of  the 
ethereal  world;  spirituality  recognizes  that  this 
ethereal  world,  in  correspondence  with  the 
ethereal  body  in  which  man  is  clothed  after  dis- 
carding the  physical,  is  the  natural  environ- 
ment for  the  next  phase  of  this  evolutionary  prog- 


The  Naturalness  of  the  Next  Phase  of  Life    113 

ress  we  call  life.  The  existence  of  the  etheric 
body  is  now  a  recognized  fact  which  is  no  more 
denied  than  is  the  existence  of  the  physical  body. 
After  this  etheric  body  shall  have  served  its  use, 
during  the  sojourn  in  the  ethereal  world,  it  will 
be  succeeded  by  a  body  still  finer  and  more  subtle. 
But  of  these  future  conditions  we  can  now  only 
speculate;  while  with  the  one  immediate  future 
condition  we  can  already  formulate  much  accurate 
and  positive  knowledge. 

Here  are  two  realms,  the  physical  and  the 
ethereal,  that  interpenetrate  each  other;  the  in- 
habitants of  the  former  withdraw  from  it  and  pass 
into  the  latter.  The  transition  effects  no  imme- 
diate change.  Nor  is  the  new  environment  in 
any  respect  so  different  from  the  former  as  to 
amaze  the  newcomer.  The  greatest  surprise, 
indeed,  is  in  the  realization  that  the  change  is  so 
much  less  than  has  been  anticipated.  There  is 
a  vast  amount  of  evidence  already  that  sub- 
stantiates this  statement.  To  the  question  as  to 
how  one  can  know  that  this  is  reliable  evidence 
it  may  be  answered  that  the  identity  of  individ- 
uals on  the  other  side  has  been  so  unmistakably 


114  They  Who  Understand 

established  as  to  give  reasonable  warrant  for  its 
acceptance  as  a  fact.  Now  when  the  identity 
is  accepted ;  when  the  friend  making  these  state- 
ments is  one  on  whose  truth  and  judgment  reli- 
ance could  always  be  placed;  and  when  the 
descriptive  accounts  of  the  conditions  of  life  in 
the  ethereal  agree  with  much  positive  knowledge 
gained  through  actual  demonstration  in  labora- 
tory research,  the  assertions  and  statements  made 
commend  themselves  to  the  mind. 

Take  the  case  of  a  communication  from  Edward 
Everett  Hale.  ^Mien  Doctor  Hale  returned  to 
his  Boston  home  from  a  visit  in  Europe  would  his 
friends  have  doubted  any  narration  of  his  about 
life,  or  other  matters,  in  London  or  Paris  ?  Then 
why,  if  his  identity  as  a  communicator  is  estab- 
lished beyond  reasonable  doubt,  should  one 
doubt  any  statement  of  his  regarding  his  present 
environment?  I  may  have  related  in  some 
previous  book  the  little  incident  that  I  beg  to 
record  here,  but  if  so,  it  is  easy  for  the  reader 
already  familiar  with  it  to  turn  this  page.  It 
is  so  typical  an  illustration  of  the  perfect  natural- 
ness of  the  next  environment  into  which  we  enter 


The  Naturalness  of  the  Xext  Phase  of  Life     115 

that  I  venture  the  risk  of  repetition.  Soon  after 
the  death  of  Kate  Field,  Doctor  Hale  wrote  to  me 
m  Paris,  saying,  "  I  did  not  know  Miss  Field ; 
I  hope  I  shall  know  her."  This  was  in  the 
summer  of  1896 ;  the  years  went  on,  and  he  also 
passed  into  the  ethereal.  Doctor  Hyslop  (who 
had  not  known  Doctor  Hale)  was  pursuing  his 
investigations  in  psychical  research  through  the 
remarkable  mediumship  of  Minnie  M.  Soule,  the 
famous  Boston  psychic,  and  coming  to  me  one  day,  )\  //  j  , 
some  few  years  after  Doctor  Hale's  death,  told  ' ' 
me  that  Doctor  Hale  had  apparently  been  at  the 
seance  that  morning  and  had  sent  a  message  to 
me,  although  a  message  that  Doctor  Hyslop 
found  quite  incomprehensible.  It  was,  "Tell 
Lilian  WTiiting  I  have  met  Kate  Field,  and  that 
she  is  the  most  adventurous  spirit  I  have  ever 
seen  in  a  feminine  body."  But  link  the  message 
with  the  letter  of  years  before  and  how  unmis- 
takable is  the  connection,  the  message  being  a 
natural  sequence  to  the  letter.  In  the  letter  he 
mentioned  that  he  had  not  known  Miss  Field. 
When  he  himself  passes  on  into  the  same 
environment    he    not    unnaturally    meets    her. 


116  They  Who  Understand 

When  in  this  life  Miss  Field  was  one  of  his  most 
appreciative  readers  and  admirers.  His  convic- 
tions on  any  matter  impressed  and  influenced 
her.  What  more  natural  than  their  meeting  in 
the  new  conditions  to  which  both  have  passed? 
And  Doctor  Hale's  characterization  of  her  as  an 
"adventurous  spirit"  is  one  unusually  applicable. 
The  message  given  somewhere  about  1912  is  in 
perfect  sequence  to  the  letter  in  1896. 
:  Lady  Henry  Somerset  has  related  that  an  audi- 
ble voice  out  of  the  unseen  spoke  to  her,  directing 
her  to  go  forw^ard  in  the  temperance  movement. 
At  that  time  she  was  entirely  engaged  in  the  social 
life  that  presses  upon  an  English  peeress,  and 
while  she  had  felt  promptings  and  drawing  toward 
work  of  reforms,  involving  leadership  and  its 
sacrifices,  these  promptings  had  only  dimly 
stirred  in  her  mind.  When  the  voice  spoke  her 
resolution  was  taken,  with  the  important  and 
beneficent  results  to  the  world  with  which  the 
public  is  familiar.  Nobly  did  Lady  Henry  respond 
to  the  bidding.  She  answered  the  call,  and  the 
path  on  which  she  then  entered  has  been  one  of 
strange  contrast  to  that  life  of  ease  and  luxury 


The  Naturalness  of  the  Next  Phase  of  Life    117 

which  otherwise  would  have  been  her  appointed 
way. 

In  the  very  interesting  reminiscences  ^  of  iMrs. 
Julia  Ward  Howe  given  by  two  of  her  daughters, 
there  is  the  account  of  an  experience  which  she 
spoke  of  as  "a  midnight  vision."  Mrs.  Howe 
was  suddenly  awakened  by  some  words  falling 
on  her  mind,  as  if  from  a  voice,  and  in  her  journal 
she  thus  recorded  the  incident : 

.  .  .  "There  seemed  to  be  a  new,  a  wondrous, 
ever-permeating  light,  the  glory  of  which  I  cannot 
attempt  to  put  into  human  words,  —  the  light 
of  the  new-born  hope  and  s^Tupathy  —  blazing. 
The  source  of  this  light  was  born  of  human  en- 
deavor. .  .  .  And  then  I  saw  the  victory.  All 
of  evil  was  gone  from  the  earth.  Misery  was 
blotted  out.  ^Mankind  was  emancipated  and 
ready  to  march  forward  in  a  new  era  of  human 
understanding,  of  all-encompassing  sjTnpathy, 
and  ever-present  help,  the  era  of  perfect  love,  of 
peace  passing  understanding." 

This  was  in  the  year  1908 ;  and  does  it  not  seem 

1  Julia  Ward  Howe :  1819-1910.  Boston.  Houghton 
Mifflin  Company,  1916. 


118  They  Who  Understand 

to  have  been  an  intimation  of  the  sublime  ideal 
toward  which  humanity  is  tending,  and  of  the 
newness  of  life  for  which  conditions  are  being 
shaped  and  molded  by  the  recent  conflict? 
Mrs.  Howe  had  never  been  drawn  to  any  special 
study  of  psychical  literature  or  speculative 
theories.  But  the  eyes  that  saw  the  glory  of  the 
coming  of  the  Lord  were  the  eyes  of  vision,  and 
without  any  especial  formulating  of  specific  con- 
viction, her  daily  life  was  simply  the  life  of  the 
spirit. 

Of  IVIrs.  Browning  it  was  said  that  she  spoke 
not  particularly  of  religion;  her  whole  life  was 
religion;  and  similarly  it  might  be  said  of  so 
exalted  a  spirit  as  that  of  Mrs.  Howe,  that  her 
entire  life,  philosophic,  poetic,  mystic,  was  the 
life  of  perpetual  companionship  with  celestial 
intelligences. 

Mrs.  Livermore  had  given  much  thought  to  the 
WTitings  of  Sir  Oliver  Lodge,  Frederic  Myers,  and 
others  eminent  in  presenting  the  philosophy  of 
spirituality,  and  she  had  come  to  the  definite  con- 
viction of  the  reality  of  communication  between 
the  two  realms.    Two  letters  from  her,  each  nar- 


The  Naturalness  of  the  Next  Phase  of  Life    119 

rating  a  striking  psycliical  experience,  have  al- 
ready been  published  in  two  previous  books  of 
my  own  ("The  Spiritual  Significance",  1900; 
"  The  Adventure  Beautiful",  1917),  and  in  many 
other  of  her  letters  to  me  allusion  and  assertion 
and  speculative  thought  regarding  the  matter 
were  almost  invariably  expressed.  After  her  own 
passing  she  described,  through  the  hand  of  a 
psychic,  her  joyful  entrance  to  the  ethereal,  say- 
ing in  part :  "  They  were  all  here  to  meet  me ;  my 
dear  husband,  Lucy  Stone,  Wendell  Phillips,  and  so 
many  of  my  friends."  What  more  natural  ?  The 
language  used  in  relating  this  included  many 
turns  of  expression  characteristic  of  her,  and 
one  or  two  incidents  that  corresponded  with 
some  objective  occurrences,  thus  establishing  a 
strong  presumption  of  the  evidential  character 
of  the  message.  -' 

The  etheric  double  of  the  individual  has  its 
prototype  in  nature.  Every  tree,  every  object 
manufactured  by  man,  every  aspect  of  nature, 
has  both  its  material  and  its  ethereal  side.  Of 
flowers,  we  on  earth  take  the  material  flower; 
those  in  the  next  environment  take  the  ethereal 


120  They  Who  Understand 

part  of  the  same  flower.  The  material  and  the 
ethereal  are  conjoined  like  shadow  and  substance. 
And,  like  these,  the  material  corresponds  to  the 
shadow ;  the  ethereal  to  the  substance.  It  is  the 
ethereal  which  is  the  positive,  the  significant,  the 
substantial ;  it  is  the  material  which  is  the  tran- 
sient and  of  lesser  significance.  It  is  the  ethereal 
body  which  Saint  Paul  asserts  to  be  the  "sub- 
stantial" body. 

An  entire  fallacy  has  been  presented  and  per- 
petuated under  variously  erroneous  forms.  The 
phase  of  life  succeeding  this  has  been  identified 
with  the  shadowy,  the  wraithlike;  it  has  been 
relegated  to  a  region  of  phantoms  and  phantasms ; 
it  has  been  regarded  as  unloiown  and,  so  far  as 
human  intelligence  could  go  in  the  present,  as 
unknowable.  Even  in  the  assertion  of  many  of 
the  professional  psychical  "researchers'*,  the 
next  condition  of  human  life  has  been  presented 
as  something  so  mysterious  that  only  the  scientist 
should  make  any  attempt  to  explore  it.  They 
would  seem  to  regard  it  as  some  abstruse  prob- 
lem in  physics  or  some  dangerous  experiment  in 
chemistry  might  be  regarded,  —  as  impossible  of 


The  Natvralness  of  the  Next  Phase  of  Life    121 

approach  save  by  the  expert.  Practically,  the 
attitude  of  many  of  them  affirms  that  the  general 
public  should  provide  the  funds  for  carrying  on  a 
purely  scientific  work,  whose  processes  it  must 
not  expect  to  be  instructed  in,  or  even  hope  to 
understand ;  and  must  quietly  aw^ait  results  as 
to  whether  these  experts  discover  that  there  is, 
or  is  not,  personal  immortality !  As  well  might 
the  church  universal  affirm  that  religion  is  no 
afTair  of  the  layman ;  that  it  consists  in  mysterious 
rites  known  only  to  the  priesthood  and  exclusively 
to  be  directed  and  carried  on  by  them.  The  great 
fallacy  has  been  in  relegating  the  experience 
entered  upon  by  humanity  after  the  change  called 
death  to  the  region  of  phenomena.  Spiritualism 
has  also  largely  contributed  to  this  false  attitude, 
although  it  has  contributed  so  much  of  truth 
and  illumination  that  it  savors  of  ingratitude  to 
arraign  the  movement  for  its  errors.  All  the 
same,  in  the  pursuit  of  truth  one  knows  neither 
friend  nor  foe ;  and  there  could  hardly  be  found 
any  ethical  cult  that  has  not  its  errors  and  its 
abuses.  Cults  are  composed  of  people,  and  the 
human  race  is  not  yet  infallible ;  not  yet  perfect, 


122  They  Who  Understand 

but  simply  on  its  great  way  toward  the  goal 
of  ultimate  perfection. 

The  general  recognition  of  the  exceptional 
persons  known  as  psychics,  or  mediums,  has 
created  a  widespread  (but  wholly  erroneous) 
conviction  that  these  persons  were  the  gate 
keepers,  so  to  speak,  and  that  no  communication 
with  those  in  the  unseen  was  possible  save  through 
their  agency.  Now  it  is  true  that  there  are  these 
exceptional  individualities  who  have  the  natural 
gift,  in  varying  degree,  of  communicating  with 
those  who  have  passed  into  the  ethereal  world. 
Just  what  qualities  or  faculties  determine  this 
special  power  is  not  definitely  known.  They 
apparently  have  a  greater  preponderance  of  the 
luminiferous  ether  than  is  common,  but  then 
what  is  luminiferous  ether  ?  Many  psychics  hold 
their  vocation  reverently.  Many  hold  it  com- 
mercially only,  and,  as  we  all  know,  some  are 
entirely  sincere  and  truthful,  and  some  are  not. 
Many  people  draw  a  strict  line  of  demarcation 
between  the  professional  and  the  nonprofessional 
medium,  declaring  that  they  have  no  faith  in  the 
former.    Does  not  this  seem  unreasonable  ?    If  a 


The  Naturalness  of  the  Next  Phase  of  Life    123 

medium  devotes  his  (or  her)  time  entirely  to  this 
calling,  why  should  it  not  be  remunerated  as  is 
the  calling  of  the  ministry?  As  the  world  goes, 
it  must  be.  The  medium  must  pay  his  bills  like 
other  people;  and  if  he  devotes  himself  to  this 
calling  he  is  entitled  to  just  payment,  nor  does 
this  any  more  invalidate  his  spiritual  usefulness 
than  the  salary  of  a  clergyman  invalidates  his 
usefulness  to  his  parish.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
professional  medium  is  apt  to  be  more  unerring 
as  a  transmitter  of  messages  than  is  the  unpro- 
fessional. For  mediumship,  like  all  other  voca- 
tions that  have  to  do  with  either  the  material 
or  the  immaterial  world,  grows  stronger  by  defi- 
nite practice. 

It  is  precisely  the  same  with  the  vocation  of 
the  poet.  Mrs.  Browning  used  constantly  to  urge 
upon  her  husband,  during  all  the  years  of  their 
married  life,  —  that  wonderful  idyl  of  fifteen 
perfect  years,  —  the  desirability  of  going  to  his 
study  immediately  after  breakfast  with  the 
definite  intention  of  writing  poetry.  To  her  it 
was  a  calling,  a  vocation  as  well  as  a  consecration. 
"I  never  mistook  pleasure  for  the  final  cause  of 


124  They  Who  Understand 

poetry/*  she  said;  "nor  leisure  for  the  hour  of 
the  poet."  Every  worker  in  any  Hne  whatsoever, 
in  poetry  and  romance  as  well  as  in  the  less 
inspirational  order  of  literary  work ;  in  spiritual 
seeking  and  in  prayer,  as  well  as  in  oflGicial  and 
mechanical  and  industrial  pursuits,  knows  the 
untold  magic  of  regular  hours  and  a  definite 
purpose.  "No  work  that  is  worth  doing,"  said 
one  of  the  greatest  of  men,  "can  be  thrust  into 
the  holes  and  corners  of  life."  Mr.  Browning 
was  not,  however,  temperamentally  amenable  to 
Mrs.  Browning's  suggestions.  He  was  variously 
gifted,  and  during  all  his  earlier  life  music  and 
sculpture  attracted  him  almost  as  strongly  as 
poetry.  The  artist  suffers  when  he  is  the  victim 
of  over-possession.  His  efforts  in  any  one 
direction  are  neutralized,  if  not  paralyzed,  by 
counter-attractions.  A  body  placed  at  the  center 
of  the  earth  would  be  equally  attracted  in  all 
directions  and  would  therefore  remain  motionless. 
The  too  numerous  attractions  are  equally  dis- 
astrous to  specific  achievement.  Whether,  after 
JVIrs.  Browning's  withdrawal  from  the  visible 
world,  she  was  able  to  influence  her  husband  more 


The  Naturalness  of  the  Next  Phase  of  Life     125 

potently  must  remain  an  unanswered  question; 
but,  at  all  events,  it  was  after  she  had  vanished 
that  he  entered  upon  regular  morning  hours  for 
work,  and  that  he  produced  his  greatest  poem, 
"The  Ring  and  the  Book."  It  was  in  the 
spring  of  ISGO,  more  than  a  year  before  her  death, 
that  he  had  chanced  upon  "the  old  yellow  book", 
when  strolling  through  the  piazza  of  San  Lorenzo, 
on  a  market  day;  but  it  was  four  years  later 
before  he  had  transmuted  the  tragedy  of  the 
Franceschini  into  his  immortal  work. 

The  professional  psychic  who  brings  to  the 
vocation  the  added  potency  of  attention  focused, 
as  it  were,  at  regular  hours,  is  apt  to  be  more 
unerring  as  a  transmitter  than  one  who  only 
exercises  the  gift  at  irregular  intervals.  But 
surveying  the  entire  field  of  mediumship  from 
this  present  vantage  point  of  time,  one  could 
hardly  escape  the  conclusion  that  mediumship 
has  been  a  phase,  a  temporary  bridge,  a  lamp 
in  the  darkness ;  but  that  now  the  time  has  come, 
or  is  rapidly  approaching,  when  it  is  no  longer 
needed.  Nothing  can  be  more  unsatisfactory, 
as  a  rule,  than  the  seance.     It  has  served  a  great 


126  TJwy  Who  Understand 

purpose;  but  its  best  use  was  to  lead  to  its 
disuse.  It  has  served  to  establish  the  indisputable 
fact  that  communication  between  the  two  states 
of  life  is  possible ;  the  complaint  that  it  has  never 
given  any  communication  of  value  is  unfounded ; 
it  has  given,  first  and  last,  during  the  seventy 
years  of  modern  spiritualism,  a  proportion  of 
communications  of  significance ;  and  it  has  given 
a  very  great  number  of  communications  that 
have  established  the  identity  of  the  communicator, 
although  nothing  of  much  importance  was  said. 
The  establishment  of  the  truth  that  communi- 
cation is  possible  is  the  all-important  purpose  it 
has  served.  After  that,  the  messages,  however 
interesting  or  comforting,  are  yet  negligible 
compared  with  the  fact  that  messages  are  possible 
at  all. 

Now  that  the  purpose  is  served,  —  then  what  ? 
The  next  step  is  for  each  to  so  develop  his  own 
spiritual  faculties  that  he  may  be  in  telepathic 
response  to  his  friends  in  the  ethereal  realm. 
The  higher  being,  the  spiritual  self,  the  real  self 
in  every  person  can  be  awakened.  But  this 
awakening   can   only   be   accomplished   by  the 


The  Naturabiess  of  the  Next  Phase  of  Life    127 

individual  for  himself.  He  must  generate  the 
force  that  will  unlock  currents  of  energy  hitherto 
unsuspected.  He  must  generate  the  force  that 
will  set  free  a  higher  range  of  faculties.  It  is 
the  liberation  of  this  force  that  is  known  in 
religious  experiences  as  conversion.  It  is  a  very 
real  fact  of  life.  It  may  easily  be  the  supreme 
fact  and  the  transcendent  experience  of  life,  an 
epoch,  that  ushers  one  into  a  new  world.  It  was 
an  experience  of  this  order  that  Edward  Everett 
Hale  thus  describes :  _    ,/'         t 

/^  "1  began  by  seeking  during  the  day  one  hoiit  ^^^ 

I  of  perfect  solitude.     As  the  weeks  went  by,  I    rTTtp 
began  to  be  conscious  of  a  curious  change  in 
myself  which  I  did  not  and  do  not  explain.     My     '**    '  ', 
pleasure  in  the  many  interests  that  made  up  my  * 

life  began  to  diminish  and  become  dull.  Instead 
of  desiring  to  finish  the  duties  to  turn  to  the 
pleasures,  I  found  that  the  so-called  pleasures 
had  little  interest.  Various  things  that  had 
filled  my  mind  lost  attraction.  I  felt  no  lack  in 
life,  however.  I  believe  I  w^as  conscious  of  a 
greater  interest." 
The  poets  have  always  testified  to  the  reality, 


128  They  Who  Understand 

of  the  spiritual  realm  that  encircles  humanity. 
This  testimony  has  not  impressed  the  general 
reader  with  its  true  significance.  It  has  been 
relegated  to  the  atmosphere  of  imaginative 
romance.  Yet  to  the  poet  (the  very  perception 
and  experience,  indeed,  that  determines  him  as  a 
poet),  the  reality  of  the  interblending  worlds  is 
invariably  recognized.  No  writer  of  verse  who 
has  not  this  recognition  and  conviction  has  poetic 
immortality.  His  songs  may  have  a  season  of 
aesthetic  recognition,  but  they  hold  no  enduring 
spell  over  the  minds  of  men.  All  poets  who  have 
won  universal  recognition  are  poets  who  intui- 
tively and  inevitably  affirm  in  their  work  the 
reality  of  the  spiritual  life.  One  does  not  need 
to  offer  in  evidence  any  list  of  names  to  support 
this  assertion.  No  poet  has  expressed  his  percep- 
tion of  the  ethereal  realm  as  interpenetrated  with 
our  own  more  clearly  than  has  Lowell  in  the  lines : 

!  "We  see  but  half  the  causes  of  our  deeds 
,     Seeking  them  wholly  in  the  outer  life, 
And  heedless  of  the  encircling  spirit  world 
Which,  though  unseen,  is  felt,  and  sows  in  us 
All  germs  of  pure  and  world-wide  purposes," 


The  Naturalness  of  the  Next  Phase  of  Life     129 

Although  in  previous  writings  I  have  (perhaps 
more  than  once)  quoted  these  lines,  they  are 
instanced  here  as  more  perfectly  embodying  the 
ideal  of  the  twofold  life  possible  to  each  and  all 
than  almost  any  other  passage  from  any  poet. 
It  is  in  this  expression  that  one  may  find  the 
true  meaning  of  the  term  "spiritualism."  It  is 
not  in  phenomena,  not  in  tables  rising  in  the 
ah-,  not  in  raps,  nor  in  bells  rung  in  the  air,  nor 
lights  seen  that  proceed  from  no  normal  source,  — 
it  is  in  none  of  these  things  that  the  faith  is  to  be 
sought.  There  is  a  world  of  legerdemain,  of 
necromancy;  there  is  also  a  world  of  physical 
phenomena,  of  which  such  intelligent  experiments 
and  investigations  as  those  of  Doctor  Crawford 
offer  legitimate  interest;  but  it  is  not  in  these 
phenomena  that  spiritual  aid  will  be  found. 
Spiritual  things  must  be  spiritually  discerned. 
The  fact  that  forces  in  the  ethereal  world  can 
(and  do)  transcend  physical  laws  and  thus 
reveal  the  existence  of  a  higher  range  of  laws  in 
physics  than  those  we  yet  know,  —  this  fact  has 
no  more  to  do  with  spirituality  of  life  and  with 
communion  with  friends  in  the  unseen  than  has 


130  They  Who  Under stard 

any  chemical  experiment  that  might  be  made, 
however  interesting  in  itself. 

It  is  the  quality  of  the  communion  enjoyed 
that  is  important.  It  is  an  interesting  scientific 
fact  that  a  man  in  New  York  may  speak  to  another 
in  San  Francisco ;  but  this  speaking  is  not  to  be 
mistaken  for  the  leisurely  conversation  with  its 
mutual  thought  and  s;yTiipathies.  The  analogy 
holds  true  in  the  contrast  between  the  receiving 
of  a  message  through  mediumistic  aid  and  the 
prolonged  telepathic  communion  possible  to  those 
attuned  to  the  same  key  of  vibration. 

Life  in  the  ethereal  is  in  perfectly  natural  rela- 
tion to  the  life  in  the  physical  world.  During 
this  past  seventy  years  of  modern  psychic  phenom- 
ena much  definite  information  has  been  given 
as  to  the  conditions  under  which  life  in  the  ethereal 
moves  on.  That  there  is  no  such  contrast  to  the 
conditions  here  as  has  been  supposed  seems  suflB- 
ciently  attested  by  the  mass  of  evidence  that 
many  who  have  passed  out  do  not  realize  the 
transition. 

All  nature  has  two  aspects,  the  material  and 
the  ethereal,  which  as  strictly  correspond  as  do 


The  Naturalness  of  the  Next  Phase  of  Life    131 

an  object  and  its  reflection  in  a  mirror.  To  adjust 
the  mind  to  the  reaHzation  of  this  natural  condi- 
tion, to  speak  to  those  in  the  unseen  as  one  would 
speak  to  a  friend  in  the  same  room,  is  to  enter  on 
an  order  of  communication  that  is  full  of  solace 
and  joy.  Where  is  this  ethereal  world?  It  is 
in  your  room,  your  home,  your  grounds;  it  is 
in  the  streets  of  the  city ;  it  is  in  the  woods  and 
the  mountains ;  it  is  on  the  sea ;  it  is  ever^^where 
because  the  ethereal  and  the  physical  worlds 
interpenetrate. 


HOW  TO  DEVELOP  SPIRITUAL  RECOGNITION 

"My  spirit  to  yours,  dear  brother; 
I  do  not  sound  your  name,  but  I  understand  you." 

—  Walt  Whitman. 

"  When  two  clasp  hands  and  part,  they  go  toward  the 
future  meeting ; 
For  the  path  of  life  is  a  circle  ;  be  sure  they  shall  meet 
again."  —  Elsa  Barker. 

IN  "Aurora  Leigh"  Mrs.  Browning  has 
something  to  say  of  the  value  of  keeping 
up  open  paths  between  the  seen  and  the 
unseen.  The  power  of  any  individual  life  is 
indefinitely  multiplied  by  the  aid  of  clear  and 
well-defined  views  of  its  relations  to  the  ethereal 
realm  and  its  possible  extensions  into  the  unseen. 
These  extensions  are  practically  unlimited.  Just 
as  one  may  have  all  the  air  he  can  breathe, 
without  money  and  without  price,  so  may  he 
draw  from  the  ethereal  realm  all  the  potency  he 
can  appropriate.  The  only  limitation  is  within 
himself.  There  is  none  on  the  other  side.  He 
132 


IIow  to  Develop  Spiritual  Recognition     133 

may  draw  on  these  forces  for  health ;  for  success- 
ful achievement;  for  power  to  help  others;  for 
knowledge;  for  spiritual  vitality.  And  he  will 
find  that  the  promise,  "  To  him  that  hath  shall  be 
given"  is  particularly  fulfilled  in  this  relation. 
As  one  draws  from  this  infinite  reservoir  of 
power  he  learns  how  to  draw  more;  as  he  as- 
similates and  appropriates  these  energies,  and 
applies  them  to  specific  purposes,  he  learns  how 
to  assimilate  and  appropriate  still  greater  po- 
tencies. Saint  Paul,  enjoining  that  men  "might 
be  filled  with  all  the  fulness  of  God",  adds 
this  impressive  statement : 

"Now  unto  him  that  is  able  to  do  exceeding 
abundantly  above  all  that  we  ask  or  think, 
according  to  the  power  that  worketh  in  us." 

The  last  clause  indicates  the  condition  of 
receiving  abundantly.  It  is  "according  to  the 
power  that  worketh  in  us."  And  this  power  is 
faith.  Faith  creates  the  condition  by  means  of 
which  the  divine  aid  can  come.  Faith  is  a 
creative  energy.  It  is  a  great  fallacy  to  suppose 
that  faith  is  a  merely  passive  mental  state  in 
which  one  idly  waits  for  some  miracle  to  happen 


134  They  Who  Understand 

to  him.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  a  condition  of  the 
most  intense  form  of  energy.  The  Catholic 
expression  of  an  act  of  faith  is  significant.  It  is 
an  act;  it  is  doing  something,  when  one  has 
faith.  It  is  a  process  of  spiritual  creation. 
God  is  able  to  do,  "exceeding  abundantly"  all 
we  ask,  if  we  do  our  own  part.  But,  as  the  apostle 
so  clearly  portrays,  this  divine  aid  is  according 
to  the  power  that  worketh  in  us. 

Emerson  suggests  the  ideal  condition  of  living 
when  he  says,  "Every  touch  should  thrill." 
One  must  so  order  his  life,  physically  as  well  as 
spiritually,  to  the  end  of  keeping  in  sensitive 
response  to  the  vibratory  influences  of  the  ethereal 
realm.  The  philosophy  of  fasting  was  to  bring 
the  physical  nature  into  this  more  sensitive  and 
subtle  response.  While  man  inhabits  his  physical 
body  its  condition  greatly  limits,  or  promotes, 
the  power  of  the  higher  influences.  It  may 
almost  exclude  them  from  his  perception.  The 
bodily  condition  renders  the  man  more  or  less 
impenetrable  or  responsive.  So  it  comes  to 
this  :  that  if  any  physical  habit  or  self-indulgence 
tends  to  more  entirely   imprison   the   spiritual 


Hmc  to  Develop  Spiritual  Recognition     135 

self,  then  it  is  wrong  simply  because  of  that 
effect. 

Phillips  Brooks  was  once  asked  how  certain 
things  seeming  innocent  enough,  not  to  say  quite 
negligible,  in  and  of  themselves  could  be  wrong? 
The  reply  of  Bishop  Brooks  was  to  the  effect 
that  if  things  not  wrong  in  themselves  yet  kept 
us  from  better  things,  to  that  extent,  then,  we 
must  class  them  as  wrong. 

The  teachings  of  Theosophy  regarding  the 
nature  of  the  physical  body  and  its  relation  to 
the  ethereal  body  have  for  their  purpose  the 
presentation  of  knowledge  and  aid  to  the  estab- 
lishment of  open  channels  for  the  divine  energy 
to  reinforce  and  recharge  the  human  energy. 
The  physical  body  is  very  plastic,  and  its  matter 
can  be  modified  constantly  by  the  force  of  the 
will.  All  hygienic  science  has  for  its  objects 
and  results  the  more  complete  domination  of  the 
physical  mechanism  by  the  power  of  the  spirit. 
College  athletics  are  not  an  end  in  themselves; 
but  athletic  culture  gives  to  the  youth  a  power  of 
control  over  this  physical  instrument  that  is  of 
untold    use   to    him.    Theosophy    contemplates 


136  They  Who  Understand 

man  as  a  dense  body,  a  vital  body,  a  desire  body, 
and,  with  other  intervening  states,  to  at  last 
achieve  the  spiritual  body.  During  the  evolu- 
tionary progress  of  the  spirit,  the  outer  bodies,  in 
successive  relays,  become  finer  and  still  finer  as 
the  spirit  exercises  upon  them  its  increasing  con- 
trol. Spiritual  potencies  are  constantly  trans- 
muted to  dynamic  energy. 

The  standpoint  of  the  Christian  Fathers  was 
that  while  it  was  hard  to  fight  poverty  and  hunger, 
yet  from  the  standpoint  of  the  soul's  progress 
these  were  far  preferable  and  far  more  favorable 
than  luxury.  It  is  left  for  the  more  advanced 
civilization  to  realize  that  comfort  and  ease  may 
be  so  held  as  to  minister  to  the  higher  life;  to 
facilitate  achievement;  and  that,  as  Emerson 
tersely  says:  "A  cushion  is  good  if  you  do  not 
use  it  to  go  to  sleep."  We  have  learned  that 
there  is  nothing  inherently  immoral  in  wealth, 
or  in  the  larger  privileges  and  opportunities  that 
it  opens;  it  is  the  use  we  make  of  these  oppor- 
tunities and  privileges  that  determine  the  matter. 
Thought  force  is  the  most  intensely  creative  of 
all  potencies.     Create  in  thought ;  to  realize  this 


Hoiv  to  Develop  Spiritual  Recognition     137 

creation  in  the  outer  and  objective  life,  is  the 
invariable  process.  The  unmeasured  potency  cf 
prayer,  as  the  means  of  uniting  man  with  his 
higher  self  and  uniting  him  with  the  divine  life, 
is  a  potency  that  exceeds  all  definition  or  human 
comprehension.  It  is  the  power  that  leads 
man  on  from  glory  to  glory.  It  is  this  power  that 
develops  spiritual  recognition. 

Desire,  alone,  effects  nothing.  Will,  purpose, 
must  be  brought  to  bear.  To  bring  the  physical 
mechanism  into  complete  harmony  with  the  con- 
trolling thought;  to  so  refine  and  dominate  it 
that  it  will  serve  as  the  most  delicate  and  flexible 
and  sensitive  instrument  to  transmute  plan  and 
purpose,  is  the  object  of  both  hygienic  science 
and  moral  law.  When  one  comes  to  study  the 
various  occult  sects  and  cults,  the  Rosicrucian, 
the  Theosophical,  and  others,  one  finds  the  basis 
of  each  and  all,  so  far  as  discipline  is  concerned, 
to  be  that  of  making  the  body  serve  as  the 
perfect  instrument  of  the  spirit.  That  is  the  use 
for  which  it  is  designed,  and  its  temporary  nature 
is  simply  because  that  when  the  spiritual  man 
withdraws  from  the  physical  world  he  has  no 


138  They  Who  Understand 

further  need  of  the  instrument  that  related  him 
to  that  world. 

The  spiritual  forces  play  a  far  larger  part  in 
this  unexplored  universe  in  which  we  find  our- 
selves than  we  recognize.  We  are,  indeed, 
"heedless  of  the  encircling  spirit-world",  and  it  is 
as  we  apprehend  more  clearly  its  part  in  daily 
life  that  we  become  more  efficient.  Science  has 
revealed  to  how  limited  an  extent  we  see  the  world 
in  which  we  are  placed.  The  telescope  and 
field-glass  reveal  a  wider  range  on  the  one  side; 
the  microscope  reveals  a  wider  range  on  the 
other  side.  Now  there  is  no  inherent  im- 
probability in  the  speculative  conception  that 
those  who  have  died  are  still  dwelling  to  a  greater 
or  lesser  extent  in  the  same  space  in  which  we 
find  ourselves.  That  we  do  not  see  them  is  no 
argument  against  their  possible  presence.  The 
eye  only  registers  within  its  own  degree  of 
vibration.  The  ethereal  body,  as  we  have  seen, 
is  invisible,  that  is  to  say,  unregistered  by  the 
physical  eye,  because  its  rate  of  vibration  is 
beyond  the  range  of  that  registration.  But  that 
their  sight  includes  us,  in  part,  or  at  certain  times, 


Hotv  to  Develop  Spinhial  Recognition     139 

at  least,  seems  to  be  established.  This  would 
account  for  many  warnings  of  danger;  for  many 
suggestions  that  find  their  way,  by  one  means  or 
another,  to  those  here.  Whether  this  power  of 
cognizance  is  associated  with  actual  presence  in 
the  sense  in  which  we  understand  that ;  whether 
it  is  telepathic  and  may  proceed  from  any  point 
in  space,  is  problematic.  But  the  result  on  this 
side  is  much  that  of  the  close  presence  as  we 
should  understand  it  here.  How,  then,  shall  we 
develop  our  recognition  of  that  cognizance  and 
our  own  ability  to  respond  to  it? 

There  are  possibilities  of  resource  in  the  ether 
beyond  man's  comprehension.  The  ethereal  cur- 
rents that  make  possible  wireless  telegraphy 
were  as  much  in  the  atmosphere  when  Columbus 
discovered  America  as  they  were  when  they  were 
discovered  by  scientists  four  centuries  later. 
\\Tio  may  venture  to  predict  the  nature  of  future 
discoveries  in  nature?  The  spiritual  man  exists 
independently  of  his  physical  body.  He  is 
capable,  even  before  death,  of  partial  detach- 
ments from  it.  The  spiritual  man  has  faculties 
undreamed  of  in  the  present.     He  possesses  a 


140  They  Who  Understand 

power,  latent  to  a  great  degree,  to  attract  new 
^'forces,  to  alter  conditions,  to  act  upon  existing 
phases  of  the  outer  life.  To  this  end  Faith  seems 
to  be  the  key.  Doubt  disperses  and  dispels  and 
destroys  power.  Faith  fosters  the  power  until 
it  grows  as  the  mustard  seed  and  becomes  a 
creative  force.  Now  this  power  to  act  upon  events 
and  to  bring  one's  self  into  harmonious  recep- 
tivity to  the  divine  currents  may  be  largely 
assisted  by  friends  in  the  unseen.")  Thus  may 
those  in  the  two  conditions  bring  to  bear  the 
best  energies  of  both  states  of  life.  It  is  not 
improbable  that  the  youth  who  have  passed 
from  the  front  into  the  next  phase  of  life  are 
still  contributing  aid  beyond  that  which  was 
possible  for  them  to  give  here.  Jamblichus, 
who  died  about  333  A.D.,  said,  even  in  that  far- 
away time ; 

"If  the  soul  rises  to  the  gods  she  becomes 
godlike,  and  able  to  know  the  above  and  below; 
she  then  obtains  the  power  to  heal  diseases,  to 
make  useful  inventions,  to  institute  wise  laws. 
Man's  intuition  is  the  result  of  the  connection 
existing  between  his  soul  and  the  Divine  Spirit; 


Hoiv  to  Develop  Spiritual  Recognition     141 

the  stronger  this  union  grows,  the  greater  will  be 
his  intuition  or  spiritual  knowledge.  ...  If 
the  mind  of  man  is  illumined  by  the  Divine  Light, 
the  ethereal  vehicle  of  his  soul  becoities  filled 
with  light  and  is  shining." 

Not  only  from  the  early  Christian  centuries, 
but  from  periods  long  antedating  the  appearance 
of  Jesus  on  earth,  similar  testimony  comes. 
The  perception  of  spiritual  truth  advances  as 
man  advances  in  development.  The  twentieth 
century  should  give  us  a  larger  view;  nor  is  it 
venturing  too  much  to  believe  that  this  larger 
view  already  manifests  itself  in  the  world.  The 
magnitude  of  the  War,  its  unprecedented  depths 
of  tragedy,  are  bringing  us  face  to  face  with 
spiritual  realities.  Consciousness  is  extending 
itself  to  hitherto  unexplored  regions.  Man  is 
learning  to  send  his  soul  through  the  invisible. 
In  proportion  to  this  extension  of  consciousness 
is  man's  approach  to  larger  truth.  The  larger 
view  of  truth  promotes  greater  effectiveness  in 
all  the  affairs  of  life.  There  is  no  limit  to  the 
radius  to  which  consciousness  can  extend  itself. 
Spiritual  advancement  is  as  recognizable  a  fact 


142  They  Who  Understand 

as  advancement  in  electrical  science.  And  as 
consciousness  extends  itself  toward  the  Infinite 
Consciousness,  man  grows  more  capable  of  co- 
operating with  the  divine  purposes,  and  it  is 
thus,  in  the  language  of  the  Bible,  that  he  may 
"walk  with  God."  Archdeacon  Wilberforce 
made  the  striking  assertion  that  "The  human 
soul  is  a  dynamo,  generating  spiritual  electric- 
ity from  a  magnetic  field  as  vast  as  the  whole 
universe." 

Should  we  not,  then,  be  able  to  penetrate  with 
intelligence  and  accuracy  to  some  degree  beyond 
the  confines  of  the  physical  world?  May  we 
not  enter  upon  cosmic  truth?  May  we  not  dis- 
cover that  the  universe  of  all  intellectual  and 
spiritual  life  is  one ;  that  in  this  universe  those 
in  the  physical  body  and  those  who  have  with- 
drawn from  it  are  all  dwelling  together?  Love 
itself  unites  closer  bonds  in  this  realization. 

"  Regret  is  dead,  but  love  is  more 

Than  in  the  summers  that  are  flown. 
For  I  myself  with  these  have  grown 
To  something  higher  than  before." 


How  to  Develop  Spiritual  Recognition     143 

Again,  we  find  Tennyson  saying : 

"Known  and  unknown  ;  human,  divine ; 
Sweet  human  hand  and  lips  and  eye ; 
Dear  heavenly  friend  that  cannot  die, 
Mine,  mine,  for  ever,  ever  mine." 

Spiritual  recognition,  therefore,  is  attained  by 
rising  into  the  realm  of  the  spiritual  order. 
"Why  do  we  make  no  greater  advances?" 
questioned  Mrs.  Browning  regarding  communi- 
cation with  those  beyond.  "Why  are  our  com- 
munications chiefly  trivial?  Why,  but  because 
we  ourselves  are  trivial.  \Miy,  but  because  we 
do  not  bring  serious  souls  and  concentrated 
attention  and  holy  aspirations  to  the  spirits  who 
are  waiting  for  such  things?  .  .  .  WTiat  comes 
from  God  has  life  in  it,  and  certainly  from  the 
growth  of  all  living  things,  spiritual  thought 
cannot  be  the  exception." 

Poet  and  seer  unite  with  prophet  and  apostle 
in  the  conviction  that  the  exaltation  of  our  own 
life  is  the  condition  of  the  recognition  of  spiritual 
realities.  Communication,  spirit  to  spirit,  should 
be  one  of  the  channels  of  religious  progress. 


144  They  Who  Understand    ^^ 

There  is  a  wide  contrast  between  the  simple 
truth  of  spiritual  companionship  and  the  mysteries 
of  occult  phenomena.  People  have  grown  be- 
wildered, if  not  repelled,  by  the  rehearsals  of  the 
seance.  To  identify  the  beauty  and  naturalness 
of  intercommunion  with  a  mass  of  objective 
phenomena,  —  with  raps,  with  alleged  materiali- 
zations, with  the  ouija  board,  with  crystal-gazing 
and  other  forms,  —  is  a  confusion  that  strikes 
dismay  to  the  minds  of  many.  These  forms  of 
manifestations  from  the  unseen  are  all  genuinely 
used  (whatever  may  be  occasional  fraud  or 
imitation) ;  but  in  the  higher  and  larger  aspect 
of  spirituality  of  life  they  become  negligible. 

-  The  danger  in  all  this  objective  phenomena 
is  that  of  inconsequential  communication,  as  there 
might  be  were  the  doors  of  one's  home  freely 

,.  opened  to  any  miscellaneous  passing  crowd. 
'^AVhile  there  are  not  wanting  authentic  instances 
of  commynication  through  a  psychic  that  is  of 
both  comfort  and  value,  it  is  still  true  that  the 
better  way  is  to  learn  to  receive  the  thought,  the 
expression,  through  one's  own  spiritual  faculties. 
Archdeacon  Wilberforce,  who  was  left  in  desola- 


How  to  Develop  Spiritual  Recognition     145 

tion  and  loneliness  by  the  death  of  his  lovely  wife 
although  continually  conscious  of  her  uplifting 
sympathy  and  presence,  sought  a  definite  com- 
munication through  the  mediumship  of  a  very 
remarkable  woman,  i\Irs.  Etta  Wriedt,  who  had 
gone  from  her  home  in  Detroit  to  London  at  the 
invitation  of  Mr.  Stead. 

The  three  seances  that  the  Archdeacon  had 
with  Mrs.  Wriedt  were  very  remarkable.  He  was 
a  tramed  observer,  but  he  was  also  a  man  of  the 
most  delicate  and  unerring  spiritual  perception. 
Many  sceptics  and  doubters  who  believe  them- 
selves critical  are,  instead,  dense.  They  are  too 
unawakened  to  the  spiritual  side  of  life  to  recognize 
truth  even  when  presented.  The  Archdeacon 
was  not  a  man  to  be  easily  deceived,  nor,  on  the 
other  hand,  one  to  fail  in  recognition  of  any 
genuine  communication.  Through  Mrs.  Wriedt's 
powers  the  audible  voice  is  heard;  "and,"  said 
the  Archdeacon  to  the  writer  of  this  book,  "if 
ever  I  heard  my  Charlotte's  voice,  if  ever  I 
talked  with  my  wife,  I  did  on  these  occasions." 
Had  it  been  merely  the  voice  alone,  however 
unaccounted  for  save  on  the  theory  that  Mrs. 


146  They  Who  Understand 

Wilberforce  was  speaking,  there  might  be  room 
for  discussion  if  not  for  well-founded  doubt; 
but  the  contents  of  those  conversations  included 
matters  known  only  to  the  husband  and  wife 
themselves  and  were  of  a  nature  to  entirely  refute 
any  possible  theory  save  that  Mrs.  Wilberforce 
was  speaking.  Then,  too,  the  x\rchdeacon  related, 
even  quite  aside  from  the  subject  matter,  there 
were  turns  of  expression;  allusions;  a  thousand 
subtle  things,  incommunicable  as  "evidential" 
matter  at  the  stern  and  rigorous  bar  of  the  Soci- 
ety for  Psychical  Research,  but  inevitably  the 
strongest  and  most  unmistakable  proof  of  identity 
to  the  Archdeacon.  It  would  not  be  right  nor 
just,  when  INIrs.  Wriedt,  Mrs.  Soule,  and  others 
of  a  high  order,  such  as  Mrs.  Piper  of  Boston, 
whose  fame  as  a  transmitter  of  messages  from 
the  beyond  is  world-wide;  who  is  the  honored 
friend  of  Sir  Oliver  Lodge  —  it  would  not  be  just 
when  these  exceptional  psychics,  and  others,  too, 
that  might  well  be  named,  are  proven  so  genuine, 
to  fail  in  appreciation  of  this  order  of  service. 
Yet  it  may  be  (and,  for  one,  I  believe  it  is)  the 
ideal  for  each  individual  to  so  develop  his  spiritual 


How  to  Develop  Spiritual  Recognition     147 

faculties  that  he  may  be  in  direct  and  personal 
touch  with  the  unseen.  This  achievement  is 
already  much  in  evidence,  and  it  will  become 
more  and  more  universal. 

]\Irs.  Livermore  (and  a  saner  or  more  poised 
woman  than  ]Mary  A.  Livermore  could  hardly 
be  known)  used  to  say,  after  the  passing  of  her 
husband,  the  Reverend  Doctor  Daniel  Parker 
Livermore,  that  every  morning,  after  finishing 
her  correspondence  and  meeting  other  immediate 
demands,  she  could  call  her  husband  and  pursue 
an  intelligible  conversation  with  him,  his  part 
in  it  being  instantaneously  impressed  upon  her 
mind  as  naturally  as  if  it  had  fallen  audibly 
upon  her  ear.  The  time  is  perhaps  not  very  far 
distant  when  i\Irs.  Livermore's  experience  will 
cease  to  be  exceptional. 

No  means  of  developing  spiritual  recognition, 
aside  from  prayer,  always  the  most  intense  power 
in  life,  can  be  so  helpful  as  that  of  taking  a  certain 
time  alone  each  day  to  lift  up  the  heart  and 
thought  and  to  give  one's  self  to  the  higher 
currents  of  the  diviner  atmosphere.  This  prac- 
tice sets  free  the  higher  powers. 


148  They  Who'^ Understand 

But  it  is  with  life,  the  quality  of  daily  life, 
that  we  are  most  concerned.  "The  field  is  the 
world.'*  The  test  is  in  the  average  daily  contact, 
in  work,  in  social  life,  in  incidental  meeting  and 
encounter.  The  test  of  spirituality  of  life  is  in 
the  homely  virtues  of  honesty,  truth,  justice; 
it  is  in  the  unconscious  influence  exerted ;  it  is  in 
the  effort  to  make  one's  self  a  link  to  carry  forward 
hope  and  happiness.  The  hour  of  uplift  and 
meditation;  of  opening  the  mind  to  all  nobler 
calls;  the  hours  even  for  prayer,  are  still  means 
to  an  end,  not  an  end  in  themselves,  and  that 
end  is  in  diviner  living. 

It  may  be  confidently  held  that 

"...  Life  is  ever  lord  of  death, 
And  Love  can  never  lose  its  own." 

Where  there  is  a  spiritual  bond  there  can  be 
no  separation.  It  is  indissoluble  for  time  and 
for  eternity.  We  shall  follow  those  who  precede 
us  into  the  ethereal  world.  What  does  Emerson 
say  ? 

"  'Tis  not  within  the  power  of  fate 
The  fate-conjoined  to  separate." 


Hoic  to  Develop  Spiritual  Recognition     149 

Love  is  of  the  immortal  life,  and  over  it  neither 
time  nor  change  nor  death  has  power.  "Love 
is  watchful,  and,  sleeping,  slumbereth  not. 
Though  weary,  it  is  not  tired ;  though  pressed, 
it  is  not  straitened;  though  alarmed,  it  is  not 
confounded ;  but  as  a  lively  flame  and  burning 
torch  it  forces  its  way  upwards  and  securely 
passes  through  all. 

"Love  feels  no  burden,  thinks  nothing  of 
trouble,  attempts  what  is  above  its  strength, 
pleads  no  excuse  of  impossibility;  for  it  thinks 
all  things  lawful  for  itself,  and  all  things  possible. 
It  is  therefore  able  to  undertake  all  things  and 
warrants  them  to  take  effect,  when  he  who  does 
not  love  would  faint  and  lie  down. 

"  He  that  loveth,  flieth,  runneth,  and  rejoiceth ; 
he  is  free,  and  cannot  be  held  in.  He  giveth  all 
for  all,  and  hath  all  in  all ;  because  he  resteth  in 
One  highest  above  all  things,  from  Whom  all 
that  is  good  flows  and  proceeds.  Love  is  active, 
sincere,  affectionate,  pleasant,  courageous,  faith- 
ful, and  never  seeking  itself. 

"If  any  man  love  he  knoweth  what  is  the  cry 
of  this  voice." 


150  They  Who  Understand 

Love  is  an  inner  and  all-pervading  and  a  trans- 
forming energy.  It  can  achieve  the  impossible. 
It  can  endure  the  unendurable.  It  can  create 
life  anew  from  ruins.  "Sorrow  is  a  condition  of 
time,  but  joy  is  the  condition  of  eternity,"  and 
Love  discerns  the  eternities.  The  mission  of 
Jesus  was  to  bring  life  and  immortality  to  light; 
"I  am  come  that  ye  might  have  life  and  have  it 
more  abundantly;"  for  life  here  on  earth  lived 
divinely  is  far  more  abundant  than  the  ordinary 
human  life ;  and  immortality  teaches  that  death 
has  no  terror,  being  merely  the  process  of  tran- 
sition into  the  fuller  life  and  joy  beyond.  The 
life  beyond  this  transition  bears  the  same  relation 
to  our  present  life  that  youth  may  bear  to  infancy 
and  early  childhood ;  that  mature  manhood  may 
bear  to  youth.  The  evolutionary  progress  is 
continuous,  gradual,  unbroken.  Who  can  dis- 
cern any  crisis  day  in  the  development  of  the 
infant  to  the  man  ?  Yet  the  transition  goes  on 
before  the  eye.  The  normal  and  orderly  devel- 
opment of  life  includes  mutual  companionship 
between  the  two  states.  All  phases  of  progress 
here  imply  somewhat  of  conquest  over  the  ethereal 


Hoiv  to  Develop  Spiritual  Recognition     151 

conditions.     Sir  Oliver  Lodge,  speaking  of  this 
matter  has  said : 

"  If  there  is  any  object  worthy  the  patient  and 
continued  attention  of  humanity,  it  is  surely 
those  great  and  pressing  problems  of  whence, 
what,  and  whither  that  have  occupied  the  atten- 
tion of  prophet  and  philosopher  since  time  was. 
The  discovery  of  a  new  star,  or  of  a  marking  on 
Mars,  or  of  a  new  element,  or  of  a  new  extinct 
animal  or  plant,  is  interesting;  surely  the  dis- 
covery of  a  new  human  faculty  is  interesting, 
too.  The  discovery  of  telepathy  has  laid  the 
way  open  to  the  discovery  of  much  more.  Our 
aim  is  nothing  less  than  the  investigation  and 
better  comprehension  of  human  faculty,  human 
personality,  and  human  destiny." 

Telepathy  is  simply  the  spirit  language. 

"  Star  to  star  vibrates  light ;  can  soul  to  soul 
Strike  through  a  finer  element  than  its  own?" 

Soul  to  soul  can,  and  does,  strike  through  this 
finer  element.  The  tragedy  of  the  War,  the 
stupendous  nature  of  the  international  conflict 
that  began  with  the  August  of  1914  and  which 


152  They  Who  Understand 

closed  in  the  early  November  of  1918,  is  revealing 
more  impressively  than  it  was  ever  revealed 
before  the  truth  of  communion  unbroken  by 
death.  It  is  a  truth  that  will  revolutionize  all 
the  philosophies  in  the  world  and  will  largely 
modify,  if  not  transform,  the  systems  of  education. 
For  children  will  be  taught  the  true  nature  of 
our  relations  to  the  unseen.  Death  will  no  longer 
be  regarded  as  a  mysterious  terror.  Through  this 
philosophy  the  spirit  of  man  will  have  been 
lightened  and  exalted  and  enabled  to  increase  in 
spiritual  energy. 


VI 


DAILY  LIFE  TRANSFORMED  BY  SPIRITUAL 
VISION 

"A  Divine  light  strikes  upon  rae,  penetrating  through 
this  wherein  I  embosom  me ;  the  virtue  of  which,  con- 
joined with  my  vision,  lifts  me  above  myself  so  far  that 
I  see  the  Supreme  Essence  from  which  it  emanates. 
Thence  comes  the  joy  wherewith  I  flame,  because  to 
my  vision,  in  proportion  as  it  is  clear,  I  match  the 
clearness  of  my  flame.  ...  0  joy  !  0  ineffable  glad- 
ness !  O  life  entire  of  joy  and  peace  !  0  riches  secure, 
without  longing !  .  .  .  Behold  now  the  height  and 
breadth  of  the  Eternal  Goodness!" 

—  Daxte  :  il  Paradiso, 
(From  the  prose  translation  by  Charles  Eliot  Norton.) 

Thy  testimonies  are  very  sure  :  holiness  becometh 
thine  house,  0  Lord,  for  ever.  —  Psalms  :  93  :  6. 

THE  Beautiful  Days  are  approaching. 
Every  hour  brings  them  nearer.  For 
in  proportion  to  the  distance  that  these 
Beautiful  Days  receded  and  their  experience 
seemed  to  fade  beyond  possibility  of  recovery,  — 
in  just  this  proportion  they  are  advancing  to 
us  and  we  are  approaching  to  them. 
153 


154  They  Who  Understand 

"For  the  path  of  life  is  a  circle." 

We  are  about  to  enter  on  the  new  order. 
Human  life  has  been  incalculably  elevated  and 
ennobled  by  tragedy,  sacrifice,  suffering.  Let 
us  not  only  keep  faith  for  it,  but  keep  faith 
with  it.  For  faith  is  divinely  creative  and  is 
the  condition  of  realizing  that  in  which  it 
believes.  Let  us  keep  hope;  let  us  approach 
the  new  order  with  courage.  With  Lowell 
one  may  say : 

"  I  have  no  fear 
Of  what  is  called  for  by  the  instinct  of  mankind." 

What  is  this  unknown  future  into  which  man 
is  advancing?  It  is  deliverance  and  salvation. 
For  two  thousand  years  the  Christian  world  has 
prayed  to  be  delivered  from  evil.  The  gradual 
deliverance,  the  larger  elimination  of  the  evils 
of  life  are  at  hand.  We  are  on  the  threshold  of 
a  world  rich  in  deeper  experiences;  glorified 
with  higher  hope  and  purpose.  New  stores  of 
cosmic  energy  shall  be  unlocked.  Man's  intel- 
lectual power  increases  in  proportion  as  he  ad- 
vances into  this  ethereal  world.    The  history 


Daily  Life  Transformed  by  Spiritual  Vision    155 

of  the  progress  of  spiritual  brotherhood  is  the 
history  of  social  evolution. 

Material  substances  have  been  regarded  as 
the  substantial  ones  out  of  which  to  fashion  the 
enduring  monuments  and  structures  of  earth. 
But  beyond  these  is  the  still  more  enduring  and 
more  potent  substance  of  Thought. 

Fundamentally,  all  things  are  made  by  thought 
and  will.  To  create  in  brick  and  mortar  is  a 
slow  process ;  to  create  in  thought  is  instantane- 
ous. This  higher  creative  power  is  about  to 
be  made  so  applicable  to  the  conditions  of  life 
on  earth  as  to  produce  a  marvelous  change  in 
all  industries.  Had  it  been  prophesied  in  the 
early  years  of  the  nineteenth  century  that  the 
human  voice  would  be  heard  from  New  York 
to  San  Francisco,  from  Washington  to  Hawaii; 
that  messages  between  Europe  and  the  States 
would  flash  under  the  ocean;  that  messages 
sent  through  the  air  on  a  ray  of  the  ether  with- 
out visible  mechanism,  would  be  transmitted 
around  the  entire  globe,  who  would  have  believed 
such  a  forecasting?  Yet  within  half  a  century 
all  these  things  have  become  common  knowledge 


156  They  Who  Understand 

and  common  practice.  Man  is  on  the  threshold 
of  changes  still  more  extraordinary  because  he 
is  about  to  enter  into  the  realm  of  higher  law. 

The  resources  of  the  ethereal  realm  are  infinite. 
In  the  ethereal  energy  lies  all  constructive  power ; 
all  possibilities  of  instantaneous  communica- 
tion; all  possibilities  of  a  new  order  of  transit. 
The  spiritualization  of  matter  is  the  next  onward 
step  in  civilization.  Henri  Bergson  perceives 
this  truth.  He  argues  that  life  should  be  free, 
spontaneous,  that  while  it  is  now  clogged  and 
hampered  by  matter,  its  free  creative  activity 
is  the  ultimate  reality.  Monsieur  Bergson  has 
also  offered  a  speculative  theory  that  is,  at  least, 
one  of  curious  interest.  It  is  that  consciousness, 
which  he  regards  as  one  great  unity,  pours  itself 
with  resistless  force  through  separate  individuali- 
ties; that  matter,  or  the  soul,  being  immersed 
in  and  clogged  with  matter,  is  what  keeps  back 
the  rush  of  life ;  that  man  has  but  to  remove  the 
obstacle  and  more  consciousness  rushes  through. 
''Organize  individuality  a  little,  and  a  little  life 
will  pass  through.  Organize  it  still  more  highly, 
and  the  more  consciousness,  the  more  life.     Or- 


Daily  Life  Transformed  by  Spiritual  Vision    157 

giinize  it  elaborately,  and  still  more  life  will 
come  through."  It  is  a  common  experience  to 
perceive  that  some  men  are  more  alive  than 
others ;  do  we  find  the  explanation  in  the  theory 
of  Henri  Bergson  ? 

Arthur  James  Balfour  has  asked  the  question : 
"  Is  the  flood  of  life  really  beating  against  matter 
till  it  forces  an  entry  through  the  narrow  slit 
of  undifferentiated  protoplasm?"  And  he  also 
questions  as  to  whether  it  is  possible  for  philosophy 
to  establish  the  reality  of  this  theory.  "Berg- 
son's  'Evolution  creatrice'  is  not  merely  a  philo- 
sophic treatment/'  continues  Mr.  Balfour;  "it 
has  all  the  charms  and  all  the  audacities  of  a  work 
of  art,  and  as  such  defies  adequate  reproduction. 
Yet  let  no  man  regard  it  is  an  unsubstantial 
vision.  It  mingles  minute  scientific  statement 
wdth  the  boldest  metaphysical  speculation.  His 
philosophy  never  w^earies  of  an  appeal  to  concrete 
science." 

Mr.  Balfour  points  out  that  Professor  Hertz 
demonstrated  experimentally  the  identity  of 
light  and  of  certain  electro-magnetic  phenomena. 
Now  light  consists  of  undulations  of  the  lumi- 


158  They  Who  Understand 

niferous  ether.  Electro-magnetic  waves  are  also 
found  to  be  undulations  of  this  same  ether,  differ- 
ing from  the  undulations  of  light  only  in  length. 
Mr.  Balfour  then  calls  attention  to  this  fact : 
that  if  man  had  a  sense  by  means  of  which  he 
could  perceive  the  long  undulations  in  the  same 
way  that  he  perceives  the  short  ones,  this  would 
be  a  new  sense  and  open  to  him  a  new  world. 

Are  we,  then,  on  the  very  threshold  of  this  new 
world  ?  Will  not  this  higher  life  begin  to  impose 
itself  on  the  ordinary  life  ?  "  The  electric  theory," 
says  an  English  authority,  "carries  us  into  a 
new  region  altogether;  it  analyzes  matter  into 
something  that  is  not  matter  at  all,  postulating 
nomads  as  units  of  electricity."  Theosophy 
states  an  illuminating  truth  in  the  following 
affirmation ; 

"  The  invisible  worlds  interpenetrate  the  visible, 

the   crowds  of  intelligent  beings  throng  round 

us  on  every  side.     Some  of  these  are  accessible 

to  human  requests  and  others  are  amenable  to 

\  the    human    will.     Christianity    recognizes    the 

{  existence  of  the  higher  classes  of  Intelligences 

!  under  the  general  name  of  angels,  and  teaches 


Daily  Life  Transformed  by  Spiritual  Vision    159 

that  they  are  'ministering  spirits';  but  what  is 
their  ministry,  what  the  nature  of  their  work, 
what  their  relationship  to  human  beings  ?  — 
all  that  was  part  of  the  instruction  given  in  the 
Lesser  ^Mysteries,  as  the  actual  communication 
with  them  was  enjoyed  in  the  Greater,  but  in 
modern  days  these  truths  have  sunk  into  the 
background." 

Professor  Tyndall  found  that  the  luminiferous 
ether  is  so  attenuated  and  elastic  that  it  can 
convey  vibrations  of  light  at  a  rate  of  some 
two  hundred  thousand  miles  a  second.  If  man 
had  the  faculties  developed  to  enter  into  rela- 
tions with  such  an  atmosphere  as  this,  his  environ- 
ment would  be  completely  transformed.  Life 
would  then  be  in  the  higher  etheric  vibrations 
of  spiritual  substance.  The  microphone  demon- 
strates the  actual  presence  in  the  atmosphere 
of  innumerable  waves  of  sound  of  which  the 
physical  ear  takes  no  cognizance.  In  this  realm 
of  finer  and  higher  vibrations,  too  subtle  to  be 
registered  by  the  ear  or  the  eye,  may  not  spirit 
voices  sound?  May  not  the  ethereal  bodies 
live  and  move?    Such  philosophers  as  Stewart 


160  They  Who  Understand 

and  as  Tait  postulate  the  existence  of  an  unseen 
universe,  with  the  strong  presumption  that  it 
is  full  of  life  and  intelligence,  that  it  is  infinitely 
higher  in  its  degree  of  intelligence  than  the  uni- 
verse we  know,  as  it  is  infinitely  more  potent 
in  force.  Only  beings  of  a  higher  organization 
could  exist  in  this  environment.  Stewart  and 
Tait  contend  that  we  must  resort  to  this  subtle 
universe  for  an  explanation  of  the  forces  that 
carry  on  the  universe  in  which  we  live.  To  a 
wonderful  extent,  here  and  now,  the  regenera- 
tion of  the  body  can  be  effected  by^the  renewal 
of  the  mind,  according  to  the  literal  counsel  of 
Saint  Paul.  The  secret  of  this  renewal  is  in 
being  able  to  exercise  the  power  to  bring  currents 
of  consciousness  into  connection  with  the  vital 
cells  x>f  the  body.  It  is  entirely  possible,  if  one 
may  learn  the  way,  to  maintain  the  physical 
meciianism  in  a  state  of  unbroken  health,  har- 
mony, and  energy.  It  depends  upon  spiritual 
initiative. 

The  new  order  of  human  experience  thus 
faintly  outlined  and  fragmentarily  suggested 
is  that  which  lies  just  before  humanity  at  the 


Daily  Life  Transformed  by  Spiritual  Vision    161 

present  time.  ''It  doth  not  yet  appear  what 
we  shall  be."  But  apparently  it  is  a  preliminary 
necessity  to  sweep  away  old  conditions.  Indus- 
trial and  social  problems  will  be  reinterpreted 
and  readjusted.  ]\Iay  it  not  be  that  the  Power 
which  makes  for  righteousness  employed  even 
the  tragic  means  of  this  recent  conflict  in  order 
to  carry  humanity  to  a  higher  plane?  Sacri- 
ficing the  kingdoms  of  the  material  and  the  tem- 
poral, man  advances  into  the  kingdom  of  the 
spiritual. 

The  vast  numbers  of  young  men  who  so  sud- 
denly passed  over  from  the  front,  carrying  with 
them  such  devotion  and  love,  are  bringing  the 
life  beyond  into  familiar  comprehension.  They 
entered  there  in  the  sphit  expressed  by  Dante : 

*'0  splendor  of  God,  by  means  of  which  I  saw 
the  high  triumph  of  the  true  kingdom,  give  me 
power  to  tell  how  I  saw  it !" 

They  return  to  assure  those  who  follow  them 
in  the  unbroken  consecration  of  love  that  the 
world  they  enter  is  as  natural  as  the  one  they 
leave,  and  that  there  is  no  break  in  the  unity 
of  life.     They  go  in  joy  and  triumph.     To  his 


162  They  Who  Understand 

mother,  just  before  death,  a  young  soldier  wrote : 
'  *'When  I  enlisted  I  knew  such  a  day  as  this 
might  come,  but  I  do  not  regret  it.  I  am  happy 
in  the  thought  that  I  can  make  my  gift  complete. 
Will  you  not  trysto  be  glad  and  thankful  with 
me?" 

One  communication  from  a  soldier  was  given 
by  automatic  writing  to  Mr.  T.  N.  Brocas,  of 
Auckland,  Australia,  and  was  published  by  the 
recipient  in  ''The  Harbinger  of  Light",  a  journal 
in  Melbourne.     The  soldier  wrote : 

"I  am  trying  to  give  you  all  a  true  and  direct 
account  of  what  has  happened  to  me  on  this  side 
of  life  —  that  is  to  say,  since  I  left  the  earth  plane 
on  being  killed  at  the  Dardanelles  by  a  Turkish 
bullet,  as  you  have  no  doubt  heard  already. 
After  I  sent  those  shawls  to  you  I  was  for  some 
time  in  Egypt,  but  directly  after  sending  those 
last  two  postcards  I,  with  many  others,  was 
sent  to  the  Dardanelles  to  fight  the  Turks.  .  .  . 
I  commenced  to  run,  with  my  bayonet  ready  at 
the  charge,  when  I  felt  a  tremendous  shock, 
and  then  all  seemed  dark  for  a  time,  but  how 
long  I  don't  know.    Then  I  awoke  to  find  myself 


Daily  Life  Transformed  by  Spiritual  Vision     163 

standing  among  strangers.  Some  seemed  to  be 
my  own  people  and  some  seemed  like  the  Turks. 

"  I  turned  to  some  of  those  near  me  and  said, 
'Where  am  I?  How  did  I  come  here?'  and 
'Where  is  the  fight?  I  cannot  see  or  hear  any- 
thing of  it,  or  my  companions.' 

"They  smiled,  and  one  of  them  said,  'We  are 
as  strange  as  what  you  are,  and  don't  know  how 
we  came  here;  but  I  suppose  we  have  been  ill 
and  have  been  brought  here  w^iile  unconscious.' 

"But  directly  after  this  a  strong,  active  man 
came,  quite  suddenly,  and  said,  turning  to  me 
and  those  near  to  me,  'Do  you  not  yet  realize 
that  you  are  all  dead?'  and  he  smiled  such  a 
smile.  I  said,  '  Dead  !  No  !  I  am  not  dead  ! 
Indeed,  I  am  very  much  alive,  I  can  tell  you; 
but  I  don't  know  how  I  came  here.  The  last 
thing  I  can  remember  is  charging  at  those  deadly 
Turks,  then  I  felt  a  shock  and  woke  up  here  to 
find  myself  in  a  strange  place.'  I  found  that  I 
was  really  dead.  Well,  that  is  to  say,  I  had 
come  over  into  the  other  side  of  death,  into 
life,  and  I  can  tell  you,  dear  friends,  it  is  a  life, 
and  a  greatly  better  life,  than  the  old  one,  for 


164  They  Who  Understand 

there  is  no  more  death  to  fear  and  look  forward 
to.  Don't  be  afraid  of  death  any  more;  the 
only  sting  of  death  is  the  temporary  parting 
from  those  we  love,  but  even  that  is  softened 
to  a  great  extent,  to  some  at  all  events,  for  they 
are  allowed  to  get  in  touch  with  their  dear  ones 
to  some  extent. 

"I  cannot  tell  you  much,  but  I  have  met  my 
mother,  and  she  and  I  had  so  very  happy  a 
meeting;  but  we  sorrowed  over  the  fact  that 
father  would  be  grieving  over  my  death.  But, 
oh,  it  will  not  be  so  very  long  till  we  are  all 
united. 

"I  must  go,  but  I  will  come  again  later  on, 
and  will  try  to  tell  you  more  about  our  life  over 
here,  and  do  believe  I  am  really  trying  to  talk  to 
you  all." 

A  series  of  messages  from  a  soldier  to  his 
mother,  recently  published  in  a  small  book,^ 
offer  an  unusual  example  of  fact  and  incident 
from  the  unseen.  Before  he  went  to  the  front 
the  youth  had  been  an  enthusiastic  experimenter 

i"Thy  Son  Liveth."  Boston.  Little,  Brown,  and 
Company,  1918. 


Daily  Life  Transformed  by  Spiritual  J'isioii     165 

in  wireless  telegraphy.  The  apparatus  was  left 
in  his  room,  and  he  had  half  laughingly  said  to 
his  mother,  before  he  went,  that  he  would  find 
a  way  to  send  her  a  message  through  it;  this 
promise,  however,  having  to  do  with  his  life 
"Somewhere  in  France"  and  not  in  the  ethereal 
world.  But  it  was  from  the  latter  that  the  first 
message  came.  His  mother  had  gone  to  his  room 
to  read  a  letter  from  him  which  had  just  arrived, 
when  suddenly  the  apparatus  signalled  *' Atten- 
tion." She  sprang  to  the  key, — she  had  before 
this  learned  the  code,  —  and  the  message  came, 
beginning : 

"Mother,  be  game.  I  am  alive  and  loving 
you.  But  my  body  is  with  thousands  of  other 
mothers'  boys  near  Lens." 

Transcribing  this,  the  mother  wrote : 
"  So  the  news  that  my  son  had  been  killed  came 
to  me  from  his  own  intelligence  by  the  methods 
we  had  used  together  in  our  experiments  in  this 
very  room.  ...  I  have  no  explanations  or 
proofs  other  than  those  that  are  given  here.  A 
man  who  icas  killed  in  battle  and  is  yet  alive,  and 
able  to  communicate  with  the  one  closest  to  him  in 


166  They  Who  Understand 

sympathy^  must  make  his  own  arguments.  I 
have  no  knowledge  of  established  psychic  laws 
or  limitations.     But  I  know  what  I  know." 

Aside  from  the  wish  to  communicate  with  his 
mother,  the  special  desire  of  this  young  man  was 
to  establish  the  proof  of  survival  after  the  loss 
of  the  body  in  order  to  comfort  other  mothers 
and  other  bereaved  homes.  This  motive,  in 
both  the  messages  from  many  sources,  and  their 
being  shared  with  the  public  by  those  who  re- 
ceive them,  is  felt  in  common  by  all.  If  one  family 
thus  receives  comfort  they  feel  it  a  duty,  as  Sir 
Oliver  Lodge  notes  in  "Raymond",  to  pass 
this  knowledge  on  and  share  it  with  all  who  are 
prepared  to  consider  it.  One  thing  that  is  con- 
tinually emphasized  by  those  in  the  ethereal 
side  is  the  sorrow  caused  them  by  the  mourning 
of  friends  on  this  side.  "Every  tear  tortures  -• 
the  dead"  is  one  expression  in  a  message.  "Try 
and  make  this  point  plain  to  the  families." 

To  all  who  have  close  ties  in  the  beyond,  one 
chief  source  of  grief  is  the  thought  that  one 
cannot  do  anything  any  more  for  those  so  loved. 
It  is  perhaps  true  that  we  miss  far  more  the  privi- 


Daily  Life  Transformed  by  Spiritual  Vision    167 

lege  of  giving  some  form  of  loving  service  or 
manifestation  than  we  do  the  receiving  of  such 
manifestations  and  precious  tributes.  One  who 
loves  finds  his  dearest  joy  in  doing  something 
for  the  one  beloved.  But  we  can  do  infinite 
and  wonderful  things  for  those  who  have  passed 
into  the  ethereal.  We  can  do  far  more  for  them 
than  was  ever  possible  when  they  were  on  earth. 
For  it  is  far  more  important;  it  offers  far  more 
of  joy  to  the  recipient  to  sympathize  with  his 
thought,  to  companion  him  in  spirit,  than  it 
did  in  this  life  to  offer  him  material  tokens.  And 
this  companionship  of  spirit  is  so  rich  in  its  satis- 
factions. 

"  Now  I  can  love  thee  truly. 
For  nothing  comes  between 
The  senses  and  the  spirit ; 
The  Seen  and  the  Unseen." 

For  the  first  time,  in  the  sweet  relations  of 
affection,  the  closeness  of  the  spiritual  relation 
transcends  all  others;  and,  as  Lowell  expresses 
it  in  the  stanza  above,  there  are  no  longer  ob- 
stacles to  come  between. 


108  They  Who  Understand 

First  of  all,  the  beautiful  offering  we  can  make 
to  them  is  not  to  sorrow  and  grieve  in  a  way  that 
shadows  and  impairs  all  their  new  interest  and 
happiness.  Realizing  the  spiritual  presence  and 
companionship,  we  can  share  these  interests  and 
happiness. 

In  a  I^tIc  embodying  much  of  truth  occur 
these  stanzas : 

"  How  can  I  cease  to  pray  for  thee  ?    Somewhere 
In  God's  great  universe  thou  art  to-day. 
Can  He  not  reach  thee  with  His  tender  care  ? 
Can  He  not  hear  me  w^hen  for  thee  I  pray  ? 

"  What  matters  it  to  Him  who  holds  within 

The  hollow  of  His  hand  all  worlds,  all  space. 

That  thou  art  done  with  earthly  pain  and  sin? 

Somewhere  within  His  ken  thou  hast  a  place. 

"  Somewhere  thou  livest  and  hast  need  of  Him ; 
Somewhere  thy  soul  sees  higher  heights  to 
climb. 
And  somewhere  still  there  may  be  valleys  dim 
That  thou  must  pass  to  reach  the  hills  sub- 
lime." 


Daily  Life  Transformed  hy  Spiritual  Vision    1C9 

In  these  latter  years  we  are  exchanging  a 
faith  that  includes  much  definite  knowledge  for 
the  former  faith  that  included  no  knowledge  at 
all  of  the  conditions  of  life  beyond.  Science 
penetrates  into  the  nature  of  the  ethereal  realm ; 
spiritual  perceptions  on  this  side  and  the  great 
mass  of  messages  from  those  beyond  unite  in 
establishing  some  very  clear  conceptions  of 
both  the  nature  of  life  and  its  environment  for 
those  beyond  the  visible.  A  death  in  the  house- 
hold tends  to  draw  each  member  of  it  into  the 
radiant  atmosphere.  There  is  the  strange,  sweet 
sense  of  a  different  order  of  companionship; 
there  are  thought  and  message  and  feeling  that 
flash  between  in  telepathic  form  of  expression. 
Shall  not  one  then  so  enter  into  the  spiritual 
loveliness  of  the  transition  that  he  shall  walk 
in  joy  in  conscious  sympathy  with  his  friend? 
For  this  is  the  priceless  gift  he  may  make,  the 
service  he  may  still  render. 

There  is  undoubtedly  a  deeper  significance 
than  we  have  been  accustomed  to  give  to  the 
assurance  of  Jesus  when  He  said : 

"If  ye  abide  in  me,  and  my  words  abide  in 


170  They  Who  Understand 

you,  ye  shall  ask  what  ye  will  and  it  shall  be  done 
unto  you." 

The  words  are  not  a  vague  and  mystic  phras- 
ing that  mean  nothing  in  particular  when 
analyzed.  Here  is  a  definite  promise:  "Ye 
shall  ask  what  ye  will  and  it  shall  be  done  unto 
you."  But  this  promise  is  conditioned;  and 
the  condition  is  something  marvelous.  For  what 
is  it  to  abide  in  Christ?  It  is  something  more 
than  to  follow  Him;  it  is  nothing  less  than  the 
complete  identification  of  the  human  self  with  the 
divine. 

The  question  readily  arises  as  to  whether 
such  complete  spiritualization  of  life  is  possible 
to  any  man  while  on  earth.  Does  not  the  very 
question  itself  suggest  that  this  spiritualization 
of  life  is  not  a  question  of  environment,  nor  one 
in  any  manner  conditioned  by  the  objective  world, 
but  that  it  is  the  problem  of  spiritual  achieve- 
ment ;  of  more  and  more  entering  into  the  spirit 
of  Him  who  had  conquered  all  lower  inclinations 
and  had  thus  become  at  one  with  the  divine? 
To  the  degree,  then,  to  which  man,  now  and  here, 
can  thus  enter  into  and  merge  his  whole  being 


Daily  Life  Transformed  by  Spiritual  Vision     171 

in  God,  to  that  degree y  and  no  more,  may  he  receive 
the  fulfillment  of  the  promise,  "Ask  what  ye 
will,  and  it  shall  be  done  unto  you."  This 
promise  is  on  that  plane  of  life  from  which  all 
selfishness  has  been  excluded.  The  exclusion 
of  selfish  purposes  does  not  necessarily  mean  the 
exclusion  of  what  we  call  material  things.  There 
is  nothing  inherently  wrong  in  a  material  object. 
It  depends  upon  the  use  that  it  serves.  In  the 
physical  world  material  objects  are  our  signs  and 
symbols ;  what  are  food,  clothing,  shelter,  the 
first  necessities  of  aid  to  the  distressed,  but  ma- 
terial things?  For  they  may  be  divinely  used, 
as  Jesus  Himself  divinely  used  physical  aid  and 
relief.  The  entire  purpose  of  life,  —  life  in  the 
sense  of  its  extension  into  all  the  infinite  eterni- 
ties, —  is  to  increasingly  lay  hold  on  the  divine. 
To  conquer  the  tendencies  that  drag  us  down; 
to  conquer  selfishness,  self-indulgence,  injustice; 
to  live  on  the  plane  where  we  take  the  good  of 
another  to  be  our  own ;  where  we  joyfully  sacri- 
fice the  lower  that  we  may  rise  to  the  higher.  It 
is  not  too  much  to  say  that  these  lessons  are 
impressively  imaged  before  man  by  the  awful 


172  They  Who  Vndersiand 


tragedy  of  the  conflict  of  nations.  Its  lesson  of 
self-sacrifice;  of  the  sacrifice  of  the  lower  life 
to  gain  the  higher,  is  as  unmistakable  as  the 
Handwriting  on  the  Wall.  In  the  individual 
instances  are  revealed  the  universal  spirit.  One 
youth,  himself  the  descendant  of  a  Revolutionary 
hero,  leaving  his  studies  at  Harvard,  made  his 
way  to  France  as  cabin  boy  on  a  cattle  boat  and 
gained  his  admission  to  the  Ecole  d^ Aviation 
Militaire.  He  wrote  his  name  as  a  hero  in  the 
battles  of  the  air.  He  destroyed  many  enemy 
air-craft.  Then,  on  a  golden  September  day 
in  1918,  while  patroling  the  American  lines, 
came  the  fatal  shot,  and  his  body  was  tenderly 
laid  in  a  field  "golden  with  buttercups."  What 
had  this  youthful  spirit  not  achieved  of  the 
sublimest  order  of  life,  of  the  absolute  partaking 
of  the  divine  life?  "This  I  say,"  were  his  words 
when  he  left,  "that  if  I  die,  I  will  die  fighting," 
And  the  mother,  learning  of  his  death,  could  say, 
"And  what  could  be  more  glorious  than  to  die 
fighting  the  enemy?  It  was  a  glorious  death 
my  son  had,  to  glide  down  to  earth  on  territory 
held  by  the  American  troops  after  he  had  done 


Daily  Life  Tranvformed  by  Spiritual  Vision     173 

his  best  and  given  his  all.  The  mothers  of  the 
United  States  and  in  all  the  countries  are  doing 
what  God  did.  He  gave  His  only  begotten  Son 
that  liberty  might  have  life." 

Of  such  greatness  of  spirit  was  the  power  created 
that  carried  on  the  War.  Was  it  nothing  for  a 
nation  to  rise  from  a  life  of  easy  pleasure  and 
leisurely  pursuits  to  such  sublimity  of  soul  as 
this?  This  one  example  which  can  be  contem- 
plated only  through  eyes  dim  with  tears,  but  also 
with  heart  and  soul  uplifted  in  gratitude  to  the 
Divine  Father  that  such  splendor  of  spiritual 
exaltation  is  possible,  is  only  typical  of  the  spirit 
of  all  this  Flower  of  Youth,  —  these  young 
Knights  of  the  Holy  Cross,  who  go  forth  in  the 
consecration  of  utter  sacrifice  of  self  that  Liberty 
may  be  enthroned  and  triumphant.  It  is  he 
who  loseth  his  life  that  shall  find  it.  Is  it  not 
true  that  the  ineffable  blessedness  of  abiding 
in  the  Christ  is  entered  upon  by  such  greatness 
of  soul?  Are  we,  then,  as  a  nation,  beginning 
to  realize  the  actual  significance  of  many  of  the 
divine  promises  whose  deeper  meaning  has 
never  before  been  revealed  to  us?     "If  ye  abide 


174  They  Who  Tinder  stand 

in  Me,  and  my  words  abide  in  you,  ye  shall 
ask  what  ye  will,  and  it  shall  be  done  unto  you." 
The  young  men  of  all  the  nations  who  have  thus 
triumphantly  and  joyfully  given  their  lives  that 
the  nations  may  live  are  thus  entering  on  a  spirit- 
ual heritage,  incalculable  in  its  power  and 
glory.  With  what  marvelous  beauty  and  in- 
tensity of  energies  do  they  find  themselves 
after  the  withdrawal  from  the  physical  body, 
which  has  served  its  purpose  and  is  discarded. 
Imagination  falters  before  the  vision  of  this 
resplendent  life  just  beyond. 

"And  they  need  no  candle,  neither  light  of 
sun,  for  the  Lord  God  giveth  them  light." 


VII 

"HERE   AM   I,   LORD;    SEND   ME'* 

"Also  I  heard  the  voice  of  the  Lord,  saying,  Whom 
shall  I  send,  and  who  will  go  for  us?  Then  said  I, 
Here  am  I ;  send  me."  —  Isaiah  :  6:  8. 

IT  is  this  voice,  it  is  this  response,  that  we 
hear  abroad  in  the  land.  The  heavens  are 
illumined  by  flashes  of  Brahmic  splendor. 
There  are  sacrifice,  privation,  and  sorrow.  There 
are  glad  renunciations;  there  is  a  choral  spon- 
taneity of  response  to  the  voice  of  the  Lord, 
''\Miom  shall  I  send  and  who  will  go  for  us?" 
The  Divine  Life  is  manifesting  itself  anew  through 
the  uncounted  thousands  of  the  youth  who 
respond,  "Here  am  I;  send  me."  The  moral 
grandeur;  the  intellectual  illumination;  the 
new  sense  of  Immortality,  —  the  marvel  and 
glory  of  these  new  conditions  of  life  through 
which  all  humanity  is  rising  to  a  higher  spiritual 
plane,  mark  this  period  as  a  crisis  in  all  the 
history  of  mankind.  This  is  the  age,  not  of  denial 
175 


176  They  Who  Understand 

and  darkness,  —  it  is  the  age  of  transfiguration. 
It  is  the  process  of  the  spiritual  regeneration  of 
man.  These  are  the  appointed  conditions  by 
means  of  which  his  latent  higher  faculties  are 
being  aroused. 

From  this  age  onward  he  is  to  be  a  new  crea- 
ture. He  in  whom  this  divine  light  has  not 
flashed  forth  in  an  awakening  is  still  asleep  in 
the  spirit,  and  can  no  more  bring  his  forces  to 
bear  than  a  sleeping  man  can  guide  or  prosecute 
a  given  work.  Man  must  become  aware  of  his 
higher  consciousness.  An  ancient  writer  coun- 
sels, "Throw  away  your  imperfections  and 
become  perfect  in  God."  If  ever  in  human  his- 
tory the  hour  had  arrived  in  which  such  counsel 
as  this  might  be  considered  in  its  fullest  signifi- 
cance, it  is  in  the  present.  The  conditions  are 
unprecedented  in  all  the  annals  of  civilization. 
This  War  was  a  great  spiritual  conflict.  All 
the  possibilities  of  future  civilizations  are  being 
weighed  in  the  balance.  The  issues  are  so  vast, 
so  incredible,  that  it  would  be  strange  if  their 
very  magnitude  did  not  blind  our  eyes.  The 
call  to  arms  was  the  call  to  spiritual  energy. 


"Here  Am  I,  Lord;  Send  Me''         177 

The  soul  of  man  is  to  be  liberated;  to  be  freed 
from  the  bondage  of  the  many  inadvertent  errors 
of  which,  in  easy  and  prosperous  times,  we  took 
little  notice.  The  little  vanities  and  vexations 
of  life ;  the  unconscious  selfishness  of  self-indul- 
gences; the  personal  extravagance  in  dress, 
in  appointments;  the  compromise  with  lower 
standards,  —  all  these  must  go.  And  when 
they  have  gone  mankind  has  throwm  off  a  burden 
and  a  material  weight.  It  is  not  that  the  soul 
would  renounce  art,  beauty,  poetry,  all  the 
loveliness  of  life.  But  she  would  renounce 
somewhat  of  artificial  standards  and  require- 
ments with  which  she  has  been  impeded. 

''Then  why  pause  with  indecision 
WTien  bright  angels  in  thy  vision 
'  Beckon  thee  to  Fields  Elysian?'' 

To  "throw  away  imperfections  and  become 
perfect  in  God"  does  not  sound  like  so  impossible 
a  counsel  to  consider,  —  even  to  aspire  toward, 
• — in  1919,  as  it  would  have  appeared  in  1914; 
for  these  five  years  have  wrought  a  signal  change 
in    the    spiritual    outlook.     Visions,    ideals,    are 


178  They  Who  Understand 

in  the  air.  Dreams  of  a  more  perfect  hmnanity 
haunt  the  heart.  "God's  kingdom  must  come 
and  it  is  our  business  to  see  that  it  comes/' 
the  great  and  good  Edward  Everett  Hale  used 
often  to  say.  He  had  the  soul  of  the  prophet. 
The  time  has  come  sooner  than  he  would  have 
dreamed,  when  the  literal  fulfillment  of  these 
words  must  establish  itself.  For  the  full  free- 
dom of  the  nations  implies  the  freedom  of  the 
individual  soul.  It  is  the  appointed  task  for 
this  age  to  create  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth. 
Each  individual  must  become  a  temple  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  manifesting  this  hitherto  undreamed- 
of power.  Why,  this  is  not  the  call  to  loss,  to 
privation,  to  poverty  of  life,  or  effort,  or  spirit. 
It  is  not  the  call  to  renounce  all  the  culture,  the 
charm  of  life,  all  that  we  have  held  as  so  desirable 
and  essential  in  the  past.  It  is  the  call  to  such 
richness  as  man  has  never  known.  It  is  the  call 
to  exalt  culture  and  beauty  and  the  enchantments 
of  life  to  a  nobler  plane.  Is  it  any  w^onder  that 
this  young  knighthood  instinctively  recognized 
the  Divine  Voice  that  was  abroad  in  the  land, 
and  sprang  with  eager  joy  to  respond  to  its  bid- 


"Here  Am  I,  Lord;   Send  Me''         179 

ding?     How  the  flaming  lines  of  Emerson  make 
themselves  heard  anew ; 

"So  nigh  is  grandeur  to  our  dust, 
So  near  is  God  to  man, 
When  Duty  whispers  low,  Thou  must, 
The  youth  replies,  /  can.'' 

For  the  past  quarter  of  a  century  the  world 
has  heard  much,  through  the  ethical  teachings 
of  India,  as  scattered  broadcast  by  the  itinerant 
Swam  is  who  have  lectured  everyT\'here,  of  the 
great  benefits  of  the  practice  of  man's  union  with 
his  higher  self,  known  under  the  Indian  term  of 
Yoga.  The  man's  union  with  his  higher  self 
is  being  effected  in  ways  unforeseen.  It  has 
become  the  practical  necessity  of  the  hour. 

All  these  forces  are  leading  to  a  restatement 
of  the  Christian  religion.  The  exclusion  in  this 
restatement  is  merely  negligible;  the  inclusion 
of  larger  truth,  or  of  a  more  perfect  interpreta- 
tion of  the  truth,  is  one  of  importance.  It  is 
to  include  faith  in  immortality,  not  merely  as  a 
religious  expression  to  which  the  layman  attached 
only  a  vague  meaning,  but  as  a  vital  and  clearly 


180  They  Who  Understand 

comprehended  fact  of  life.  There  will  be  in- 
cluded a  recognition  of  psychical  truth.  There 
will  be  included  the  comprehension  of  the  nature 
of  the  change  we  call  death  and  an  unquestioned 
conviction  of  the  unity  of  the  individual  life  in 
the  physical  and  the  ethereal  worlds.  We 
shall  grasp  the  fact  that  the  withdrawal  from 
the  physical  body  has  no  more  power  to  change 
the  man  himself,  in  any  instant  way,  than  has 
the  substitution  of  one  costume  for  another. 

With  that  closer  walk  with  God  for  which  the 
soul  of  Cowper  sighed  and  which  this  restate- 
ment of  religion  will  enjoin,  will  be  included 
that  easy,  natural  recognition  of  the  presence 
of  friends  who  have  passed  beyond,  that  recog- 
nition and  telepathic  communion  of  compan- 
ionship to  which  much  allusion  has  been  made 
in  previous  pages  of  this  little  volume.  It  is  not 
strange  that  when  this  companionship  and  com- 
munion is  presented  under  the  aspects  of  weird 
and  incomprehensible  physical  phenomena  the 
religious  man  should  turn  from  it  as  something 
that  desecrates  that  which  he  holds  sacred;  but 
seen  in  its  true  light,  as  a  component  part  of  our 


"Here  Am  /,  Lord;   Send  Me''         181 

own  spiritual  life,  just  as  social  companionships 
and  the  sweetness  of  friendships  are  a  component 
part  of  our  life  in  the  visible  world,  then  will  it 
be  estimated  aright.  Then  will  it  be  seen  as 
a  part  of  the  spiritual  atmosphere  of  life  pre- 
sented by  Jesus,  the  Christ.  Man  will  come  to 
realize  not  only  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as 
death,  save  as  a  name  defining  a  change  of  condi- 
tions in  the  onward  progress  of  conscious  life, 
but  that  this  change  causes  no  separation.  No 
one  has  formulated  the  new  and  more  extended 
view  of  truth  into  a  clearer  presentation  than  has 
Epes  Sargent  in  the  following  propositions: 

"(1)  Man  is  an  organized  duality,  consisting 
of  an  organic  spiritual  form,  evolved  coincidently 
with  and  pervading  his  physical  body,  having 
corresponding  organs  and  developments. 

"  (2)  Death  is  the  separation  of  this  duality 
and  effects  no  immediate  change  in  the  spirit, 
neither  intellectually  nor  morally. 

"(3)  Progressive  evolution  of  the  moral  and 
intellectual  nature  is  the  destiny  of  individuals; 
the  knowledge,  experience,  and  attainments  of 
earth  life  form  the  basis  of  the  spirit  life." 


182  They  Who  Understand 

Mr.  Sargent,  a  poet,  a  thinker,  an  accomplished 
man  of  letters,  was  the  editor  of  the  Harpers' 
"  Cyclopedia  of  British  and  American  Poetry  ",  the 
most  notable,  finely  selected,  and  complete  poetic 
anthology  that  existed  up  to  the  time  of  its  publi- 
cation in  1880.  Since  then  a  new  school  of 
poetry  has  arisen,  of  which,  at  that  time,  Walt 
Whitman  was  almost  the  only  herald.  Under 
the  date  of  April,  1886,  Doctor  Hiram  Corson 
wrote  to  Walt  W^hitman,  saying,  "There  are 
points  upon  which  I  have  been  long  pondering  — 
one,  especially,  that  of  language-shaping,  and 
the  tendency  toward  impassioned  prose,  which 
I  feel  will  be  the  poetic  form  of  the  future,  and 
of  which  I  think  your  'Leaves  of  Grass'  is  the 
most  marked  prophecy." 

■  Mr.  Sargent's  death  occurred  just  before  this 
important  Cyclopedia  was  published.  In  the 
announcement  of  the  volume  the  Harpers  char- 
acterize him  as  a  man  of  complex  nature,  high 
aspirations,  and  one  whose  profound  knowledge 
of  literature,  whose  clear,  acute,  and  discriminat- 
ing judgment  eminently  fitted  him  for  this  work, 
the  crowning  work  of  his  life.     In  his  spirituality 


"Here  Am  /,  Lord;   Send  Me''         183 

of  nature,  as  distinguished  from  the  merely  formal 
and  academic,  Mr.  Sargent  had  the  keenest 
and  most  unerring  poetic  intuitions.  With  this 
he  united  a  philosophic  bent;  and  in  the  early 
days  of  manifestations  from  the  unseen  world 
he  had  given  serious  and  discriminating  study 
to  the  phenomena.  He  had  become  convinced 
of  the  truth  of  communication  between  the  two 
conditions  of  life  in  the  physical  and  in  the 
ethereal.  He  felt  the  truth  that  was  later  to 
be  so  well  expressed  by  Doctor  Charles  W. 
Eliot  when  he  said  : 

"  The  religion  of  the  future  will  not  be  gloomy, 
ascetic,  or  maledictory;  it  will  deal,  not  chiefly 
with  sorrow  and  death,  but  with  joy  and  life." 
Religion  becomes  joyful  and  vital  and  replete 
with  creative  energy  when  the  manifestations 
of  the  spiritual  universe  are  recognized  in  their 
true  relation  to  the  physical  world.  To  restrict 
human  perception  to  that  of  the  physical  senses 
alone  limits  man's  world  as  the  deprivation  of 
sight  and  hearing  limit  the  world  of  the  persons 
thus  afflicted.  It  is  in  proportion  as  man  exer- 
cises his  spiritual  faculties  that  his  world  is  en- 


184  They  Who  Understand 

larged  and  made  more  significant,  more  intense 
in  its  energies,  more  enthralling  in  its  interests. 

It  is  difficult  to  conceive  of  a  statement  more 
reasonable,  or  one  that  could  more  entirely 
commend  itself  to  the  moral  judgment  of  the 
individual,  than  these  three  propositions  for- 
mulated by  Mr.  Epes  Sargent.  That  there  is 
an  organic  spiritual  form  that  exists  entirely 
independent  of  the  physical  body,  but  which 
uses  the  physical  body  as  an  instrument  through 
which  to  function  during  the  sojourn  on  earth, 
has  been  abundantly  proven  both  by  science  and 
by  psychic  study.  That  the  process  we  call 
death  is  merely  the  separation  of  the  man  from 
his  temporary  instrument  of  communication 
with  the  physical  world  is  abundantly  recognized. 
That  the  progressive  evolution  of  the  intellectual 
and  moral  nature  is  the  unending  experience 
is  a  presumption  supported  by  all  religions; 
by  all  systems  of  ethics ;  by  the  intuitive  recogni- 
tion of  the  soul.  Jesus  came  to  bring  life  and 
immortality  to  light;  that  is,  to  make  clear  this 
fundamental  truth  of  the  endless  process  of  spirit- 
ual evolution. 


''Here  Am  7,  Lord;   Send  Me''         185 

They  who  understand  realize  that  the  intelli- 
gent comprehension  of  man  as  a  spiritual  being 
has  no  relation  to  the  idle  and  meaningless  asser- 
tions made  by  those  who  have  no  definite  con- 
ceptions of  the  true  nature  of  life.  Mere  physi- 
cal phenomena,  genuine  or  fraudulent  as  they 
may  be,  are  not  a  factor  in  the  matter.  The 
investigations  and  conclusions  are  on  another 
plane.  The  true  comprehension  of  the  spiritual 
nature  of  man  has  to  do  with  conduct,  which 
Matthew  Arnold  rightly  defined  as  being  three 
fourths  of  life.  It  is  a  man^s  conduct  which  is 
the  unerring  touchstone  of  his  degree  of  spiritual 
advancement. 

The  nature  and  conditions  of  life  in  the  ethereal 
are  becoming  still  more  real,  to  say  nothing  of 
far  greater  and  more  universal  concern,  by  the 
multitude  of  homes  bereaved  by  the  War.  Love 
follows  these  vast  numbers  of  young  soldiers 
who  died  at  the  front  into  the  experiences  that 
immediately  awaited  them,  —  the  conditions  upon 
which  they  immediately  entered.  Communica- 
tions have  been  frequent.  Many  of  these  are 
so  linked  with  personal  remembrances  of  their 


186  They  Who  Understand 

life  here  as  to  be  amply  evidential,  even  to 
the  vigilant  psychic  researcher.  They  speak  of 
these  conditions  with  the  utmost  naturalness. 
They  confront  aspects  which  they  do  not  under- 
stand and  about  which  they  speculate  much  as 
they  would  here  in  entering  on  a  new  environ- 
ment. In  one  of  these  communications  we  find 
the  young  man  saying  that  after  a  period  of 
helping  on  the  battlefield  they  were  to  leave  for 
another  place.  "We  did  not  fly,  or  float,"  he 
says.  "We  just  marched  at  a  rattling  good 
pace.  The  only  strange  thing  about  it  was  that 
we  did  not  mind  such  natural  obstacles  as  for- 
ests or  rivers,  but  went  right  along  through  them 
or  over  them.  .  .  .  We  passed  through  vil- 
lages shelled  and  destroyed.  There  were  human 
bodies  ever^^where.  From  this  point  of  view 
there  is  no  more  in  death  than  removal  from  one 
house  to  another."  The  communicator  speaks 
of  their  conductor  —  one  who  had  been  longer 
an  inhabitant  of  the  ethereal  —  as  apparently 
receiving  instructions  in  a  way  that  puzzled  the 
newcomer.  "There  were  no  messengers  or  me- 
chanical means  like  telephones  or  wireless.     But 


"Here  Am  7,  Lord;   Send  Me''         187 

it  seems  we  acquire  the  ability  to  hear  anything 
addressed  to  us,  personally,  through  any  amount 
of  space.  That  is  how  you  reach  us.  And 
what  v>'e  are  trying  to  do  now  is  to  have  you  hear 
us  as  well  as  we  hear  you."  ^ 

This  suggestion  will  particularly  appeal  to 
those  who  understand.  There  is,  all  in  all,  an 
accumulation  of  testimony  that  those  in  the 
unseen  can,  and  do,  hear  the  spoken  voice.  Then 
the  next  thing  that  follows  is  that  those  on  earth 
shall  also  hear  the  voice  from  the  unseen  realms, 
and  distinguish  the  spoken  words.  Clairaudience 
is  the  power  of  hearing  with  the  spiritual  sense. 
The  words  fall  upon  the  mind  with  all  the  reality 
of  tone  and  inflection.  Clairaudience  thus  dif- 
fers from  the  telepathic  method,  by  means  of 
which  the  thought  is  flashed  upon  the  mind,  but 
without  this  sense  of  tone  and  inflection.  The 
young  soldier  from  whose  communications  the 
above  extracts  are  taken  also  said : 

"I  get  all  your  messages,  mother.  I  can  only 
answer  a  few  questions.     Partly  because  I  am 

1"  Thy  Son  Liveth.''  Boston.  Little,  Brown,  and 
Company,  1918. 


188  They  Who  Understand 

not  yet  sure  of  many  things  here,  and  partly 
because  there  seems  to  be  no  means  of  communi- 
cation concerning  certain  conditions.  That  is, 
when  we  get  beyond  the  usual,  we  are  beyond 
the  common  medium  of  language.  The  words 
we  know  are  inadequate  to  express  our  revela- 
tions." 

This  suggests  that  telepathy  is  of  a  higher 
and  more  universal  order  as  a  means  of  communi- 
cation than  clairaudience.  The  latter  is  limited 
in  its  scope  to  language  as  we  know  it  on  earth ; 
the  former  has  the  infinite  possibilities  of  the 
infinite  universe. 

In  this  world  we  find  the  individual  life  greatly 
enlarged  and  its  capacities  multiplied  by  the 
acquirement  of  new  languages.  The  classics, 
the  romance  languages,  open  to  man  new  worlds 
of  life  and  of  literature.  They  enable  their 
possessor  to  enter  into  many  phases  of  life  and 
thought  otherwise  impenetrable  to  him.  Is  it 
unreasonable  to  infer  from  this  that  the  ability 
to  easily  converse  with  those  in  the  next  higher 
state  of  life  would  be  a  signal  advance  in  evolu- 
tionary progress?    Removed  from  the  associa- 


''Here  Am  7,  Lord;   Send  Me"         189 

tion  of  the  phenomenal,  the  inconsequential  (as 
the  phenomenal  is  but  too  apt  to  be),  it  would 
simply  be  a  factor  in  the  general  enlargement 
of  intelligence;  an  increasing  comprehension  of 
the  universe  in  which  we  live;  and  the  cancel- 
ing of  the  former  mystery  (not  to  say  the  terror) 
of  death.  It  would  thus  eliminate  the  one  great- 
est sorrow  of  human  life.  We  should  come  to 
understand  the  nature  of  the  change  and  know 
that  it  did  not  involve  the  separation  of  entire 
silence.  It  would  be  of  incalculable  intellectual 
benefit  as  well  as  consolatory.  It  would  be  far 
more;  even  that  of  the  more  intimate  compre- 
hension of  the  Divine  Wisdom. 

*' These  things  I  have  spoken  unto  you  that 
in  me  ye  might  have  peace,"  said  Jesus;  the 
words  conveying  the  assurance  that  increased 
comprehension  of  the  unseen  life  gave  to  man 
increased  peace  of  mind  and  freedom  from  anx- 
iety. "In  the  world  ye  shall  have  tribulation," 
He  added ;  "  but  be  of  good  cheer ;  I  have  over- 
come the  world."  To  have  tribulation  "in  the 
world"  does  not  mean  that  tribulation  has  geo- 
graphical  assignments   and   is   a   factor   in   one 


190  They  Who  Understand 

realm  inherently,  and  not  in  another.  Tribula- 
tion is  a  condition  of  imperfect  and  defective 
spiritual  life.  The  more  completely  man  may 
unite  his  spirit  with  the  divine  order,  the  less 
his  tribulation.  He  may  endure  privation,  dis- 
aster, but  shall  we  not  learn  to  distinguish  be- 
tween these  and  tribulation,  which  is  the  result 
of  mingled  ignorance  and  selfishness.  One 
may  be  hungry,  or  cold,  or  limited  in  a  thousand 
ways  of  discomfort  and  inconvenience  without 
being  at  all  selfish  or  ignorant.  He  may  so 
discriminate  between  temporary  discomfort  and 
onward  progress  as  to  enable  him  to  patiently 
endure  and  vigilantly  strive.  To  "endure  as 
seeing  the  invisible"  is  of  profound  significance. 
It  is  the  condition  of  faith  that  sees  beyond  the 
temporary,  and  faith  is  the  creative  power  by 
which  the  immediate  and  temporary  can  be 
transmuted  into  the  noble  and  the  satisfactory. 
The  "world"  in  which  tribulation  is  a  factor  is 
a  condition  of  spirit.  Jesus  overcame  that 
lower  condition ;  man  may  overcome  that  lower 
condition.  WTien  he  rises  into  the  larger  spiritual 
life  he  has  overcome  tribulation.     Rising  into 


"Here  Am  7,  Lord;'  Send  Me''         191 

this  larger  spiritual  life;  feeling  one's  self  a 
part  of  it,  the  sorrow  for  the  dead,  the  grief 
and  loneliness  incident  to  the  change,  are 
transmuted  to  a  new  sense  of  the  beauty  and 
the  joy  of  the  new  relations  that  have  been 
established. 

V  "Let  not  your  heart  be  troubled,"  urges  the 
Divine  Teacher;  reminding  us  that  we  already 
believe  in  God,  and  enjoining  that  we  also  believe 
in  Him.  For  it  is  He ;  it  is  His  personal  experi- 
ence and  assurance  that  reveal  to  us  the  true 
nature  of  death.  He  demonstrated  that  this 
change  had  no  power  over  the  immortal  being. 
"Xow,"  He  says,  "ye  have  sorrow."  That  is, 
while  uncomprehending  of  the  nature  of  the 
great  adventure,  while  still  ignorant  of  its  entire 
significance,  "ye  have  sorrow";  then  comes  the 
assurance,  "But  I  will  see  you  again,  and  your 
heart  shall  rejoice,  and  your  joy  no  man  taketh 
from  you."  The  words  are  as  vital  to-day  as 
they  were  two  thousand  years  ago.  They  appeal 
to  us  with  the  deeper  meaning  because  man  has 
advanced  to  a  true  comprehension  of  all  that 
they  mean.     They  lift  us  into  the  Blessed  Assur- 


192  They  Who  Understand 

ance ;    they  open  to  us  the  celestial  gates,  even 
the  Gates  of  New  Life. 

Is  it,  then,  that  the  final  magnitude  of  the 
result  of  the  War  shall  be,  —  not  only  the  estab- 
lishment of  more  just  industrial  and  economic 
conditions;  not  only  the  promotion  of  tem- 
perance and  the  downfall  of  intemperance  and 
the  evils  in  its  train ;  not  only  the  bringing  about 
of  needed  reforms  and  the  promotion  of  better 
social  conditions ;  not  only  a  renaissance  of  Art 
and  Literature,  enriched  and  ennobled  by  all 
the  deepening  of  life  in  the  world's  tragedy ;  but 
shall  the  supreme  result  of  this  mighty  conflict 
of  the  nations  with  its  sending  into  the  Beyond 
these  vast  masses  of  noble  youth  be  the  develop- 
ment of  the  latent  spiritual  powers  of  man  and 
the  recognition  that  death  need  not  cause  sepa- 
ration; that,  indeed,  it  gives  the  conditions  of 
the  closest  union  of  spirit  to  spirit?  Life  would 
be  transformed ;  readjusted  at  once  to  a  higher 
plane.  All  its  interests,  and  thereby  its  possi- 
bilities of  happiness,  its  capacities  for  zest  and 
enjoyments,  would  be  tremendously  extended. 
For  the  larger  that  one's  individual  world  be- 


"Here  Am  /,  Lord;   Send  Me'*        193 

comes  in  its  potentialities  of  achievement,  its 
call  to  action,  its  unfolding  of  greater  purposes, 
the  larger  areas  of  happiness  does  it  offer. 

"Dismiss  the  delusion  that  matter  is  not  in- 
formed with  spirit,  and  that  God  knows  nothing 
of  matter,'*  says  Archdeacon  Wilberforce ;  "mat- 
ter, incidents,  material  conditions,  life  experi- 
ences, are  the  spirit's  media  through  which  He 
speaks  to  us.  .  .  .  When  you  blend  the  con- 
scious mind  with  the  Infinite  Mind  you  are  dwell- 
ing in  the  ^secret  place  of  the  Most  High.'  While 
you  are  thus  mentally  dwelling  in  'the  secret 
place',  no  sorrow  can  touch  you,  no  anxiety  can 
fret  you;  you  are  in  full  communion  with  the 
spirit  beings  on  the  other  side;  you  are  in  vital 
union  with  the  Infinite  Spirit." 

From  such  communion  one  brings  stores  of 
renewed  energy  to  press  on  in  his  duties  and 
occupations.  Humanity  is  on  the  eve  of  remark- 
able changes  and  transformations.  The  dawn- 
ing recognition  of  powers  in  every  individual 
that  link  him  in  natural  and  unbroken  compan- 
ionship with  those  who  have  passed  from  the 
physical  realm;    that  make  possible,  by  means 


194  They  Who  Understand 

of  this  conscious  recognition,  the  blending  of 
effort  in  both  worlds  for  the  progress  and  up- 
lifting of  the  universal  life;  this  general  move- 
ment of  rising  to  higher  planes  of  perception 
is  a  pledge  and  prophecy  of  the  most  inspiring 
nature. 

"O,  Days  of  the  Future,  I  believe  in  you!" 
Nor  can  one  fail  to  catch  on  the  air  the  wonder- 
ful message  of  the  poet: 
"0  my  brothers  and  sisters!    It  is  not  chaos  or 

death.     It  is  form,  union,  plan,  — 
It  is  Eternal  Life,  —  it  is  Happiness!" 

The  messages  from  many  of  the  youth  who 
have  passed  on  bear  witness  to  the  naturalness 
of  the  life  on  which  they  enter.  There  are  as- 
pects of  it  that  continue  the  aspects  familiar  to 
them  here.  There  are  new  conditions  resulting 
from  the  ethereal  environment,  about  which 
they  speculate  as  a  man  might  in  a  foreign  coun- 
try on  confronting  conditions  hitherto  unknown 
to  him.  "To  acquire  the  ability  to  hear  any- 
thing personally  addressed  to  us,  through  any 
amount  of  space,"  was  one  thing  that  aroused 
the   curiosity   of  the  young  man   from   whose 


"Here  Am  I,  Lord;   Send  Me''         195 

messages   several   quotations  have  been  made. 
\Miat  more  natural  ? 

^^^len  Doctor  Graham  Bell  first  exhibited  the 
telephone,  how  eagerly  people  discussed  this 
new  and  apparent  possibility  of  speaking  beyond 
the  known  limits  of  the  human  voice;  and  how 
incredible  to  the  students  of  the  invention  in 
1868  would  have  been  the  extensions  of  its  ser- 
vice as  practiced  in  the  daily  life  of  1919 !  The 
speculations,  and  the  conclusions  arrived  at,  as 
revealed  by  Raymond  Lodge;  as  revealed  by 
many  other  of  the  young  men ;  the  conjectures, 
the  assertions,  the  observations  and  inferences 
of  all  this  body  of  youth  who  suddenly  enter  on 
the  succeeding  conditions  of  this  endless  life,  form 
a  mass  of  testimony  that  is  far  from  unimportant. 
It  is  not  an  unimportant  fact  that  the  father  of 
one  of  these  young  men  who  has  been  able  (be- 
cause of  the  cooperation  of  his  parents)  to  com- 
municate with  the  life  here,  is  known  as  the 
world's  greatest  living  scientist  and  one  whose 
spiritual  perceptions  are  so  developed  as  to  enable 
him  to  become  a  reliable  interpreter  of  the  nature 
and   possibilities    of   this    communication;     one 


196  They  Who  Understand 

whose  sympathy  with  other  bereaved  families 
is  so  great  that  he  felt  constrained  to  place  on 
public  record  all  that  he  felt  most  helpful  in  the 
messages  from  his  own  son,  and  thus  share  these 
with  all  who  value  them.  Sir  Oliver  Lodge 
had  been  absolutely  convinced  of  the  reality  of 
communion  between  the  two  worlds  long  before 
this  communion  had  become  to  him  so  vital 
a  matter  as  to  its  truth  or  fallacy.  With  no 
uncertain  note  he  had  more  than  once  stated 
that  he  knew  those  whom  we  call  dead  could 
speak  to  us;  that  they  are  far  more  aware  of 
life  here  than  we  dream ;  that  personal  communi- 
cation is  not  only  possible  but  that  it  is  an  as- 
sured and  unquestionable  fact.  With  the  pass- 
ing of  his  son  this  assurance  could  not  but  become 
a  more  vital  matter  to  him.  The  comfort  it 
has  afforded  is  the  comfort  that  may  reach  every 
sorrowing  home.     It  is  in  the  Divine  Order. 

Apparently  these  young  men  who  in  all  the 
glow  and  freshness  of  ardent  youth  passed  into 
the  ethereal  world  so  instantly,  who  daily  faced 
this  immediate  possibility,  are  inevitably  uplifted 
to  the  higher  plane  of  life,  whether  they  vanish 


''Here  Am  I,  Lord;   Send  Me''         197 

from  earth,  or  still  remain.  Life  to  them  can 
never  be  the  same  again.  They  have  stood  too 
near  to  the  divine  realities.  If  they  return  to 
enter  into  the  affairs  of  the  present ;  or  if  they 
enter  on  the  work  of  the  next  plane,  they  bring 
to  bear,  in  cither  case,  a  new  influence.  Those 
who  pass  on  seem  to  find  little  break  in  the 
continuity  of  their  lives.  They  speak  of  being 
with  their  comrades  the  same  as  here.  They 
are  full  of  plans  and  interests.  The  special  gift, 
or  attraction,  often  repressed  by  circumstances 
when  on  earth,  springs  into  activity  in  the  new 
life. 

How  often,  in  this  part  of  life,  is  it  true  that 
the  one  whose  soul  was  in  music  has  been  obliged 
to  adopt  a  business  career;  the  born  scientist 
has  applied  himself  to  agriculture  or  to  industrial 
concerns.  The  freedom  of  the  ethereal  realm 
at  once  liberates  the  individual  from  a  distasteful 
occupation,  precisely  as  some  suddenly  fortunate 
circumstance  in  this  world  may  set  a  man  free 
from  enforced  labor  and  permit  him  to  enter  on 
the  line  for  which  he  most  cares.  Mr.  Lowell 
found  his  chair  in  Harvard  a  burden  to  his  life. 


198  They  Who  Understand 

He  longed  for  the  leisure  demanded  by  his  poetic 
gift  and  the  freedom  that  would  enable  him  to 
devote  himself  to  literature.  When  at  last 
this  came  he  joyfully  resigned  his  professorship. 
Similar  matters  of  release  from  the  distasteful 
occupation  appear  to  be  the  experience  in  the 
ethereal  life. 

This  assurance  alone  has  its  consolation  for 
those  in  the  home  left  desolate  and  bereaved. 
Nor  is  there  unmixed  desolation  to  those  who 
find  themselves  initiated  into  the  larger  truth. 
They  who  understand  find  that  understanding 
brings  courage,  trust,  and  joy.  They  who 
understand  enter  on  a  new  and  more  intimate 
spiritual  companionship  with  their  beloved.  Thus 
do  they  both  give  and  receive  a  new  order  of 
happiness.  For  it  is  this  gift  we  may  still  offer 
to  the  one  so  dear,  —  the  gift  of  sympathetic 
comprehension  of  his  new  life.  His  gallant 
spirit  heard  the  call,  —  "Whom  shall  I  send,  and 
who  will  go  for  us?"  And  in  all  the  ardor  of  his 
divine  enthusiasm  he  replied,  "Here  am  I,  Lord; 
send  me!"  Could  the  love  that  so  tenderly 
enfolds  him  mar  his  new  happiness  with  unbroken 


"Here  Am  7,  Lord;   Send  Me''         19d 

gloom  and  lament?  Shall  it  not  rise  into  per- 
fect understanding  and  sympathy  with  the 
glory  that  has  been  revealed  to  him  ?  The  glory 
shall  encompass  life  here  as  well  as  that  on  the 
higher  plane.  Love  unites  both  realms,  and  no 
separation  of  spirit  is  possible.  Love  shares 
the  glory  and  the  beauty  of  the  transfiguration. 
It  is  they  who  understand  who  shall  thus  enter 
into  the  gladness  and  the  radiance  which  enfold 
and  exalt  the  beloved  m  their  new  life  and  shall 
thus  enter  into  the  joy  of  the  Lord. 

And  then  ? 

Then,  "The  sun  shall  be  no  more  thy  light  by 
day;  neither  for  brightness  shall  the  moon  give 
light  unto  thee ;  but  the  Lord  shall  be  unto  thee 
an  everlasting  light,  and  thy  God  thy  glory. 

"  Thy  sun  shall  no  more  go  down ;  neither  shall 
thy  moon  withdraw  itself;  for  the  Lord  shall 
be  thine  everlasting  light,  and  the  days  of  thy 
mourning  shall  be  ended.'* 

It  is  they  who  understand  who  shall  enter  into 
the  realizations  of  the  Blessed  Promise.  It  is 
they  who  understand  who  shall  hear,  as  if  borne 
on  the  air,  the  divine  assurance: 


200  They  Who  Understand 

"For  our  light  affliction,  which  is  but  for 
a  moment,  worketh  for  us  a  far  more  exceeding 
and  eternal  weight  of  glory ; 

"While  we  look  not  at  the  things  which  are 
seen,  but  at  the  things  which  are  not  seen;  for 
the  things  which  are  seen  are  temporal ;  but  the 
things  which  are  not  seen  are  Eternall" 


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UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 
BERKELEY 

Return  to  desk  from  which  borrowed. 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


MAR         '352 

OCT  1  7  1952 
OCT      3  1952 


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y.C  BERKELEY  LIBRARIES 

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